NSRP Report Calls for Review of Youth Employment & Empowerment Generating Programmes A recent report by the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP), which called for an immediate review of the existing employment generating programmes, may be a wake-up call to the various tiers of government in the face of the rising crime situation, which has in most cases been linked to youth unemployment, writes Festus Akanbi Any time from now, the Nigerian landscape will begin to witness frenetic campaigns by various political parties in readiness for next year’s general elections. The competition, for the hearts of the electorate, according to analysts’ permutations, will be fierce when the contest begins. For the incumbent administration, its modest achievements in the area of the economy will be a major campaign issue. Today, the administration is celebrating its ability to tame inflation which has consistently been confined to single digit over the past one year. Another important milestone that will be handy during the campaign is the rebasing of the economy which places Nigeria at the forefront of African economy. However, one area that appears to have defied immediate remedy is the rising unemployment situation. Analysts said it won’t be a surprise if the opposition parties make it a campaign issue when the time for full blown electioneering campaign begins. The Minister of State for Industry, Samuel Ortom, in a recent interview acknowledged the severity of challenges posed by unemployment in the country. The Challenge In a newspaper interview, the minister said: “As we’re sitting here, some journalists may also be affected. It’s either you’ve laboured to train your brother or your sister or your own children. Today, they have graduated but they are still depending on you. You go out on the street and you’ll find a number of graduates that are in the labour market. Of course, it’s also said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Labour industry affairs commentators, who admitted Nigeria is in a serious unemployment crisis, quickly recalled the tragedy that occurred last year when a number of job hunters who applied for the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment examination were trampled to death, while scores were seriously injured in various locations in the country. According to investigation, over 6.5 million Nigerians who paid an application fee of N1, 000 each applied for 4,000 NIS vacant positions and were all made to sit for the exams at different venues on the same day. The Report This pathetic situation was recently underscored by a report by the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP) which indicates that Nigeria should create 4.5 million jobs annually to tackle the high level of unemployment in the country. It added that concerted effort made towards attaining the target would create enduring benefits to Nigeria and the entire African continent. The NSRP is a five-year programme funded by the United Kingdom, UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) with the aim of reducing violent conflict in Nigeria. While the country’s economy is said to have grown at the rate of seven per cent during the last decade, the report revealed that unemployment doubled during the period with poverty rate standing at a staggering 54.4 per cent. It made reference to the 2013 United Nations Human Development Index, where Nigeria came 153 out of 186 countries and 118 out of 134 in Gender Inequality Index and linked some of the conflicts in the country to unemployment. “Official measures of unemployment in Nigeria were as high as 23.9 per cent for 2011, rising to 27.4 per cent in 2012, while a 2012 UN report asserted Nigeria’s youth unemployment figures were the worst in sub-Saharan Africa. “With a total population of 167 million, estimates of the country’s total number of unemployed given by government officials in the media during 2012 and 2013 ranged between 20.3 million and 67 million,” the report said. However, a fair assessment of the situation will show that successive administrations, especially the incumbent, have been bereft of actions capable of mitigating the problem of acute unemployment. Government Efforts It is in view of this reality that the study reviewed the country’s employment generation and economic empowerment programmes including the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria Programme (YouWIN!), and the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO). Other programmes reviewed were Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme, the Agricultural Transformation Action Plan, the National Enterprise Development Programme, the University Entrepreneurship Development Programme, as well as the Integrated Youth Development Initiative. The report concluded that despite the number of such schemes and the resources poured into them, youth unemployment and levels of insecurity have continued to grow in Nigeria. In the worst cases, such programmes were found to produce the opposite effect based on interviews conducted on some youth in many parts of the country. It was also found that the targeted population were never involved or consulted in the design, implementation and monitoring of the intervention programmes. In a poll conducted to determine youth perception of government’s employment programmes, 39 per cent of the population agreed government publishes information on the selection process. Only 26 per cent agreed such programmes contributed to reducing the overall rate of youth unemployment. Seventy-nine per cent of the sampled population agreed that only youth close to politicians got selected while 64 per cent thought female youth were discriminated against. As part of measures to make such programmes work, the report called for better planning and coordination of youth employment sector. The Road Map It also advocated a clear road-map to steer government response – whether federal, state or LGA- rather than proliferating initiatives as well as ensure strategic mix of demand and supply through policy coordination at macro and micro levels. From all indications, unemployment in Nigeria has resulted in more and more people who do not have purchasing power. Less consumption has led to lower production and economic growth has been hampered. Unemployment also has social consequences as it increases the rate of crime. According to statistics, the secondary-school graduates consist of the principal fraction of the unemployed accounting for nearly 35 per cent to 50 per cent. The rate of unemployment within the age group of 20 to 24 years is 40 per cent and between 15 to 19 years it is 31 per cent. Under employed farm labour, also referred as disguised unemployed, makes the rural unemployment figures less accurate than those for urban unemployment. Almost two-third of the unemployed rural population is secondary-school graduates. According to Economic Watch, an online portal, economic growth is not the only solution to curb unemployment in Nigeria as the official statistics illustrate that previously, unemployment did not always decline with the economic growth. Other solutions such as the provision of right skills to the people to help them tackle the problems and lead a more prosperous life should also be given importance.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 11:31:28 +0000
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