A Recommendation to the Ogun State Youth Development Committee

Presented by: Brian Oji, Projects and Placement Coordinator, AGDC

Employability and Enterprise Development LTD/GTE, Lagos

Nigeria.

brianoji@gmail.com

ECONOMIC STRENGHTENING AND YOUTH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT IN OGUN

STATE

The greatest challenge confronting youths in Nigeria today is the issue of unemployment. It is

the leading economic detractor and strong cases of national insecurity and youth restiveness

can be traced to it. Typically, unemployment creates a vacuole that is sometimes filled by social

tensions with the youth being the most powerful conduit of discontent.

Disillusionment in the face of joblessness is all the greater when the qualified and jobless have

very faint hopes of securing employment and functioning actively in the society. Not having the

chance to take one‘s place in society leads to deep disenchantment both with society and its

governing structures. Unemployed youths can be a destabilizing factor within any society, and

as we have seen from far away Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, to our own Niger Delta – there is

nothing to profit from stocking unemployed youths. Youth engagement, therefore, should be a

major goal of any responsible administration.

The Nigeria Youth Policy Document defined youths as persons between ages of 18 to 35, ideally

this group should constitute the most active segment in of a Nation’s labour force but with 70%

of unemployed Nigerians falling into this age bracket they rather constitute the bulk of our

redundant labour and unproductive dependents.

However, If young people are provided with employment opportunities they can become

productive assets and take their part in mainstream society, offering the best of their skills and
talents to economic and social development. But if this opportunity is not forthcoming there is a

high chance that disaffected youth will quickly turn to violence and crime as a means of

survival.

Dimensions to the challenges facing Nigerian Youths

 In the Educational sector, Nigerian undergraduates spend an average of six years for a

four year course before they come out with a degree which compares very poorly to

similar degrees from other countries.

 Each year about a one million qualified students apply through the Joint Admission and

Matriculation Board (JAMB) for entry into higher institutions of learning and only about

200,000 (20%) of them get admitted to all the universities in Nigeria, leaving the

remaining 800,000- all qualified with adequate number of required WAEC credits- to

keep trying in search of JAMB admission for another 3-5 years. With most of them

ending up getting admitted when they should be graduating.

 On admission into higher institutions, they are bombarded with theory based and

socially irrelevant theories and concepts and encouraged, by largely difficult lecturers, to

read hard so as to secure good jobs after school entrepreneurship is virtually unspoken.

 Sadly, after spending long fractured years in universities, young graduates come out

into society and cannot find good jobs. They are widely criticized for being

unemployable, partly because they have received the kind of education that should

serve a forgone society. But the main challenge stems from the fact that there are simply

very few jobs available.

 In other cases, financial constraints, among other factors force students out of school

after secondary school but this group, though decently educated are not able to secure

meaningful employment. Largely because of paucity of relevant skills and the fact that
 there are thousands of more qualified youths jostling for the seemingly unattractive

positions that could be a good start-point for secondary school leavers.

 Idle youths pose a lot of health risks one to another as they are open to fall victim to

such diseases like HIV/AIDS by conforming to their hormonal drives without required

caution. Thousand of Nigerian youths are between schools (mostly secondary school

and higher institutions), thousands more are idle due to reckless education related strike

actions and thousands more are unemployed graduates. Youth idleness poses the

greatest challenge to containing HIV/AIDS in today’s Nigeria.

 Few youths have confronted unemployment with courage and tried to start up

businesses but fell right back into unemployment because of the complete absence of an

enabling environment for their businesses to thrive. From power supply to access to

credit, Nigeria feilds a very tough terrain for enterprise development.

 In Ogun State Particularly, majority of our best minds (youths) contribute actively to the

economy of other states where they went in search of white collar jobs. Our continued

dependence on the formal sector must give way to a new era of entrepreneurial

development. As a state, we are yet to crystallize our unique selling points with which

we can drive economic growth and international renown.

The psychological impact and attendant frustration of these conditions on Nigerian youths are

enormous. No state with a view to any form of future prosperity should allow its youths to such

wastage.

Policy Recommendations: An Agenda for Government

There is so much that needs to be done, but as a responsible generation, here are some key areas

where government needs to formulate enabling policies;

 Augmenting Education Curricula: There is a need to introduce more practical and

current employability and enterprise training into the curriculum of state run secondary

schools and higher institutions. This can be creatively emphasized through

 entrepreneurship social groups, inviting corporate chiefs to lecture special courses for

university students and simulation exercises.

 Develop a financial market that supports SMEs: The returns on improving access to

finance for young entrepreneurs has far reaching economic development implications.

There should be schemes in place to support young entrepreneurs with few

connections, no credit history and scant knowledge of financial markets in accessing and

managing business capital.

 Creating a labor market that works better for the young: Solving the youth

unemployment challenge will require recognizing that young workers are unfairly

disadvantaged in the labor market. Governments should embark on policy that will

promote apprentice schemes in major organizations to help young people develop

experience, networks and reputation.

 Target youth-specific sectors: As demonstrated in several rapidly developing countries,

government, when guided by the private sector and market signals can play a very

functional role in supporting key sectors of the economy. Government should research

industries and milieu to identify and drive development in youth-led sectors, which

might include ICT, entertainment, tourism, and agriculture, amongst others.

Project Recommendations

In achieving our objectives, here are some key projects we should embark on:

1. The Ogun State Youth Stakeholders Forum: This is an interactive forum that should hold

annually where the governor and government officials exchange ideas with youths and

other stakeholders on effective progress strategies for statewide development. Typically

the forum should attract a large crowd of pre-registered youths with thousands more

connected via mass media.

2. Ogun 5000 Entrepreneurs Project: This is a focused economic expansion and

development project that supports youth in Ogun state to create new businesses or

strengthen existing businesses. It is a mentorship based project with a segmented

 implementation plan that would culminate in setting up 5000 strong businesses which

will collectively contribute massively to the Ogun state economy

3. The Masters’ Class Project: This is a public private partnership initiative, where leading

captains of industry and top professionals are drafted to teach specific courses in state

run educational institutions. This would prepare students for workplace realities as they

would be learning from the key players themselves.

4. The NYSC Employability and Enterprise Training Scheme: This is a value-add for all

Corpers in Ogun State. It is a 3-week intensive training on workplace readiness and

business intelligence for all Corpers serving in Ogun state. This would increase their

resourcefulness and value offering that would impact positively on Ogun State for the

duration of their one year National service and possibly beyond.

5. The Teach-the-Teacher Project: This aims to empower teachers with the most recent

content and techniques in their chosen fields to ensure that the products of our

educational system are globally competitive.

6. Vocational Training Project: This is aimed at secondary school leavers who are yet to

gain admission into the university. They would learn necessary crafts like shoe making,

hat and bead making, make up artistry, interior decoration and event management,

through which they can start small businesses and contribute to developing the Ogun

State economy.

The Strategic Edge

Since our creation in 1979, Ogun State has never attended the causes that concern youth

development with folded arms. However, these changing times require a new embracive

philosophy for youth capacity development which clearly considers its impact at the micro and

macro economic levels. Capacity building is not foreign to any administration in Nigeria and

the world over. But as evidenced from the few economic success around us, the delineation of

unique industries that would form focus areas for the youth capacity building drive is key to

the realization of our development objectives. Within Ogun State, there are natural resources
and a social milieu which, should we capitalize our efforts on, would exponentially increase

demand for our products in national and global circles. This is popularly called ‘Blue Ocean’

market positioning and would increase exportation, domestic production, indigenes’ standard

of living, economic diversification as well as national and international respect. These are

youth-led sectors and there is a need to research our environment and identify these sectors

with a view to explore them optimally.

Plans must therefore be drawn and actions taken speedily. The consequences of inaction in this

area are cataclysmic as unoccupied youths present no advantage to Ogun State and their

idleness will have far reaching negative implications on our collective security, the economy

and our future.