Expert Wants FG to Tackle Unemployment through Entrepreneurship
The President, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, (PSAN) Mr. Boniface Okezie on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to tackle the rising unemployment rate in the country through entrepreneurship skills acquisition programmes.
Okezie, a financial analyst, who spoke to news hunters in Lagos also said that the entrepreneurship skills acquisition project, should have various apprenticeship programmes.
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, the country’s unemployment rate reached 10.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 from 9.9 per cent in the previous quarter.
The bureau added that a total of 22.45 million of the entire labour force of 76.96 million were either unemployed or underemployed during the period.
Okezie observed, however, that the programme should be for Nigerians, who would initially be apprenticed and later build careers from their respective entrepreneurship programmes.
“Getting into apprenticeship for about eight months will enable the individuals to master the skills and learn the ropes of the business.
“The person should commence his or her own business and employ more people, thereby reducing the number of unemployed youths in the country.
“This model has successfully worked in some other climes and the country cannot be an exception,” he said.
Okezie noted that government should build necessary infrastructure, especially by urgently revamping the power sector to reduce the cost of doing business in the country.
He re-stated the need for fixing of the power sector as a major step toward the industrialization of the country as the process could help to ameliorate the unemployment problems.
