OVER 67 million Nigerian youths are unemployed and the
scenario opens the country to a major crisis if not quickly addressed.
The Director-General, National Directorate of
Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, who made the disclosure on
Wednesday, said the higher the number of unemployed youths, the more likely a
crisis could be stirred.
Mallam Mohammed, represented by the NDE
Director of Small Scale Enterprises, Mr Kunle Obayan, was speaking
at the graduation and resettlement of beneficiaries of Solar Energy Training
Scheme, in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
While emphasising the urgent need to take
youths off the streets and put them to work, he said this was one of the
ways through which the desired peace and economic development in the
country could be achieved.
Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics, he
said the figure was what was obtainable as of 2011, adding that unemployment
and poverty, especially among the youth, had remained one of the fundamental
challenges threatening the economic development of Nigeria.
He said: "According to the National Bureau
of Statistics, Nigeria has a population of over 67 million unemployed youths as
of 2011. This is out of a population of about 167 million persons.
"The higher the number of unemployed
youths in the country, the more likely a crisis can be stirred. It is,
therefore, imperative that these youths be put to work and taken off the
streets so as to achieve peace and economic development."
Mallam Mohammed pointed out that the
resettlement of the graduates of the scheme marked another milestone in the
fight against unemployment and poverty among youths.
He said the NDE, over the years, had been
involved in environmental scanning to discover ways of mitigating unemployment,
stating that one of such is the training in renewable energy, specifically the
solar energy system.
This, according to him, is borne out of the
realisation of the energy crisis confronting the nation.
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