At Last! Lawmaker Gives Solution To Unemployment In Nigeria

The dwindling issue of unemployment has worsened the conditions of the youth causing most of them to be jobless and constituting a nuisance in the country. Some youths can be sighted hanging around the street and getting engaged in criminality out of frustration and hunger. These could be avoided if they had legit sources of livelihood.

In this interview with Chinenye Ugonna of Naij.com, Eyinnaya Abaribe representing Abia South senatorial district speaks exclusively on three ways to curb unemployment in Nigeria. He went ahead to point out the two issues in the country which are the issue of unemployment and underemployment.

However, Abaribe spoke on the saddening norm in Nigeria where an individual has to know an insider to get a job.
In this interview, he breaks how unemployment can be curbed. See excerpts below.

“Firstly, the reason why we elect a government in place is because they are going to come out with policies with the matter of unemployment. There are two basic things going on here. The matter of unemployment and then underemployment. And so the government in power insisted that they have a formula for the matter of unemployment and till date, we have not seen it.

“I belong to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and not All Progressives Congress (APC) so its not my responsibility to give them my formula to dealing with the matter of unemployment. This is because my party as an opposition party will also have its own opposition in every aspect of the policy of the APC which is now the government in power. I will also say that when we see where they want to go then we will make our own recommendations but there is no Nigerian that is not worried with the fact that people go to school and are unable to find employment.”

“Secondly, It has also got to the point where you cant get a job if you do not know someone on the inside. It is a big difficulty and it is something we should be able to deal with. If we don’t deal with that, it is just a time bomb that is ticking. Nigeria is a young country.”

“According to UN statistics, more than half of the people are beyond the age of 30. So basically, we have people who are of age to increase the Gross domestic product in the country and increase the output. There is absolutely no way anyone can endorse in anything and yield benefits. At a point at which you have interest rates at double digits, there is absolutely no way you can set up a factory on such terms and be able to do production that will sell,” He explained better.

“Thirdly, at every point, we have to be able to encourage small and big medium enterprises because even a big organisation cannot employ many people but small organisations can employ two, three or four people. We should know that the bedrock of this economies, we should know that it is not the large ones but the multitude of small cottage industries. Part of what i have been doing in my constituency is to champion in the budget, the ‘made in Aba’ trade-fair and people who are in the leather, gold, footwear, clothing industries. We bring close to 150-200 firms,” He added.

” We bring them to do exhibitions in Abuja for over a period of five days and for each time they come, they go back with better skills and increase their output and client-base. Many of them have given me positive feedback. While they are expanding, they are hiring more people so this has a ripple effect on unemployment.”

“But we have to get a budget for it through the funding. We are lost because it was approved in the budget but it was never implemented so there is no funding for it this time. Usually its done in August. Its the end of September and nothing has been done. I will say that opportunity is strangled. Then there is no minister to complain to. Usually its done through Smidan Smidan but they say tere are no funds for it. So everyone is affected with this.” said Abaribe.

Seun Onigbinde, co-founder of BudgIT, a non-governmental organisation who promote accountability and transparency of governance especially on budget matters also said the government needs to expand the skills of graduates in the country.

He went ahead to say that when an individual has skills in a certain area, the Nigerian economy should be able to loan some money to start up small scale businesses.

“Another thing is for the government t support small scale businesses in terms of access to loan, and support. They need to encourage people feel the economy because that is one of the biggest challenges in the country.”

“Powering the economy with a skilled set, and encourage small business into multiple spaces, that should curb unemployment in Nigeria

“There is no standardization of skills set for the economy and we should have people with optimum skills in the country.

“For example, you have a graduate who feels that he can just pick any profession. Its an exchange of values and skills. If i am ready to pay you, i should get your skills in return. For example, if you have the skills of a developer, analysis or even leadership skills. All this can reduce unemployment,” said Oniginde.