ABUJA-The UNIDO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Patrick Kormawa, said the organisation had trained 23,571 unemployed Nigerians in various entrepreneurship skills.
Kormawa who made the announcement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday said the gesture was to enable unemployed graduates set up their own businesses.
He said that UNIDO had in partnership with Hewlett Packard and the Federal Government, inculcated entrepreneurial skills in some Nigerian youths through its Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs training programme.
According to him, the programme, established in 2011 is aimed at creating critical mass human resources with entrepreneurial skills and the right attitude to combat unemployment.
“Since its inception, the programme has graduated over 23,571 students from different training centres.
“Out of these, 675 established their own businesses, while 5,197 are gainfully employed in their respective lines of business.
“Out of the established enterprises, 159 recorded growth in their businesses and created additional 505 jobs,’’ he said.
Kormawa said that UNIDO had decided to establish its own LIFE progromme to further help unemployed graduates to be self-employed.
“Poverty and inequality levels remain unacceptably high and one of the reasons for this is the challenge of creating the right jobs for a rapidly growing youth population.’’
He said that the LIFE programme was designed to assist micro-entrepreneurs in expanding the potential of their businesses by providing them with ICT and business skills.
The country representative said that UNIDO had partnered with university-based agencies, rural community development centres, SME support institutions and urban training institutions to reach students through online activities, face-to-face training, and access to internet resources.
He said that the project had been expanded to cover 20 universities and 15 SMEs institutions with the target to benefit up to 166,000 young men and women and to create at least 40,000 direct and indirect jobs in three years.
He said that UNIDO would also collaborate with philanthropic organisations that had indicated interest to support the programme, adding that this would enable the organisation to reach out to a million young people within the next four years.
Komawa expressed his delight on the success of the programme in Nigeria, adding that the scheme had also been implemented in many other countries across the globe.
He said that UNIDO was also partnering with the Bank of Industry to get the trainees start-up grants and credit facilities.
“Start-up is important because not everybody can get 20 per cent investment fund from his parents or from his own savings. So, we need a safe loan for them to start businesses.
“It is not only to train them but to link them up with market, finance and mentoring within the next four years.’’
He said that the organisation would soon launch a directory of laboratories which would be used by Nigerian entrepreneurs to enable them to know the proper things to do. (NAN)