A Non-Governmental Organisation, Centre for Youth Integrity Peace and Social Development (CEYIPSOD), has expressed concern over the increasing rate of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria, urging government at all levels to address the situation.
This is contained in a statement in Ado Ekiti, signed by the National President of the group, Comrade Oluseye Victor Adeleye, to commemorate Nigeria’s 59th Independence anniversary.
Adeleye stressed that the current state of unemployment in Nigeria was highly worrisome, resulting in high crime rate, mass murder, insurgency, militancy, armed robbery, kidnapping and drug abuse, among others.
The National President appealed to the Federal Government and states’ Ministry of Labour and Productivity to enhance their values on empowerment of self-employed youths as such would go a long way in generating more jobs and boosting the economy.
He reiterated that government must find long-lasting solutions to deliberate extortion of self-employed youths in the name of generating revenues, which in turn reduces the morale of youths in business.
He also suggested the need for authorities to ensure that recruitments into various parastatals must undergo scrutiny with transparency to ensure engagement of best hands for better productivity, while skill acquisition programmes across the country must be revamped with a view to promoting self-discovery and reducing crimes.
“Nigeria’s unemployment numbers jumped by nearly 30 percent in 2018 to 16 million, according to a November report by the National Bureau of Statistics.
“Nigeria edged out of its worst recession in nearly three decades in September last year and made bouts of economic growth but unemployment and poverty have yet to see a positive impact, ”he added.
He noted that the high unemployment rate of 23.1 per cent, and underemployment of 16.6 per cent by the National Bureau Statistics (NBS) of 2019 report was alarming while another two million are expected to be unemployed by the end of 2019, hence the need for urgent steps to end the ugly trend.
Nigeria overtook India this year as having the largest number of people living in extreme poverty — 87 million — according to the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Reviewing the mission and objectives of CEYISPOD, Adeleye urged the federal and state governments to allocate more resources and energy in the provision of adequate human resources.
This is even as it has been projected by various financial experts that the unemployment rate for Nigeria will reach 33.5 per cent by 2020, with consequences that are better imagined, if the trend is not urgently reversed.
This is piece of advice to the Federal Government quickly do something on the unemployed in Nigeria.