Omu-Aran (Kwara) – Government at all levels have been urged to engage fresh graduates in small and medium-scale enterprises.
Mr Alex Abegunde, the President of Dominion Youth Liberation (DYL), an NGO, made the appeal during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Omu-Aran, Kwara, on Thursday.
NAN reports that the Omu-Aran based NGO was established in 2012 to promote youth resourcefulness and self reliance.
Abegunde said such intervention would help to reduce youth unemployment, poverty and boost the nation’s socio-economic development.
He described the current high rate of unemployment, especially at the grassroots, as unacceptable and stressed the need for youths to be self-sufficient and self-reliant.
According to him, such intervention is the only way our youths can be productively engaged and contribute their quota to the nation’s economy.
Abegunde said that acquisition of certificates and higher education was no longer a guaranteed source of livelihood.
He said being educated could be as important as water to life and which would definitely make governance easier to understand.
“But recent development as regarding high number of graduates roaming the streets unengaged remain a critical factor.”
He said that this posed serious challenges to government to embrace entrepreneurship development as better and veritable alternative for economic transformation, growth and development.
“This is where some uninformed youths and those who designed our education curriculum actually got it wrong.
“It is high time we did the needful in order to get us back to the right track,” he said.
Abegunde advised government and the private sector to channel resources toward promoting skill acquisition training and entrepreneurship development among the youths.
“Government should evolve an arrangement where the option of floating a small scale business is made available to the fresh graduates.
“I also advise the youths to make good use of opportunities available in acquiring knowledge and skills that would make them equipped productively,” he said. (NAN)
