ABUJA—THE Federal Government of Nigeria and the World Bank have signed a US$900,000 ( about N120 million) for the preparation of the Nigeria Urban Youth Employment and Empowerment Project (NUYEEP).
A release issued by the bank’s image maker in Nigeria, Mr. Obadiagh Tohomdet in Abuja, at the weekend, said that the grant was provided by the Japanese Government and administered by the World Bank.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala signed for the Federal Government while the Acting Country Director, Victoria Kwakwa, signed on behalf of the World Bank on Friday evening.
On the proposed Nigeria Urban Youth Employment Project the Finance Minister said:
“This project is in line with the pillars of the National Economic and Empowerment Development Strategy(NEEDS) and should help in solving some of the unemployment problems among Nigeria’s teaming youth”.
The President of the World Bank, Mr. James Wolfensohn has taken keen interest in the issue of youth employment and met with Nigerian youths during his visit to Nigeria in March 2004.
The US$100 million Youth Employment Project which is to be prepared with the Japanese Grant will have three important components:
(1). Support a system-wide coordinated Inter-ministerial dialogue at the Federal and State levels on youth, labor and education policy reforms critical for the success of the long-term resolution of the youth unemployment challenges.
(2). Employment generation, skills acquisition and social capital enhancement.
This component will support skills development and job creation for the very poor of the unemployed youths most of who dropped out of the school system too early to master any trade/skills and who are willing to engage in mass employment efforts in areas likely to include public services provision and maintenance.
(3). Empowerment of youths who have completed tertiary and or secondary education to organize themselves, undertake entrepreneurial training likely to involve much of agro-processing industrial endeavors, form job-creation cooperatives where desired and enable youths to better market their skills.
Six states : - Anambra, Bauchi, Kaduna, Lagos, Plateau & Rivers have so far been selected to participate in the project which is expected to be ready for implementation in 2005.
“Involvement of the Nigerian youth in the project decision-making processes has been very instrumental in designing components that directly seek to address the issues of the youths in ways they deem fit and appropriate. Taking full consideration of the needs of the youth, the project steering committees at the Federal and State Levels have youths directly represented in consultation with the various organs of youth leadership in the country” Kwabena Amakwah-Ayeh, NUYEEP Task Team Leader, said.
The Japanese government was said to have extended the gesture to Nigeria in recognition of the population of unemployed youths with a wide variety of skills and training in the nation.Of a total population of about 120 million, almost 80 million Nigerians are under the age of 35 years, with about 43 million falling between the ages of 15 to 34.
Nationally, there are about 19 million primary school children (of ages 6 to 11); and about 4.9 million secondary school students (ages 12 to 17). Approximately 450,000 students attend university; 190,000 go on to Polytechnics and 250,000 go through Teachers training, Nursing Schools and other post-secondary institutions.
This leaves a large number of young people without secondary or tertiary education who join the labor market with little or no relevant skills for jobs.
