Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has inaugurated a six-man committee on the provision of 20,000 jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the state.
This is to be achieved within his 100 days in office.
While inaugurating the committee, the governor said the provision of jobs for 20,000 unemployed youths in the state was one of the cardinal programmes of his administration, targeted to be achieved in his first 100 days in office.
He said the creation of jobs was to address the problem of mass unemployment among youths, both at individual and societal level.
“A society with 32 percent youth unemployment like our own is sitting on a time bomb. Our youths, between the ages of 15 and 35, account for close to 60 percent of Nigeria’s population. This is one third of the nation’s workforce. They constitute 32 percent of unemployed people in the country. It is more disheartening that majority of these youths have no basic skills or requisite education for employment,” he said.
Explaining the framework of the youth employment programme, Governor Ajimobi said the scheme, christened “Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State,” (YES-O) would involve intervention in employment and skill acquisition, adding that it would ensure that the beneficiaries were given both cognitive and entrepreneurship trainings.
“The rationale for this initiative is to address a problem that affects us as individuals and as a society, every parent with unemployed youth in the household is never a happy parent,” he said.
The governor said those who were graduates among them would have access to government micro-credit scheme to become small-scale entrepreneurs.
“We shall not only provide fish for participants in the scheme, we shall teach them how to fish. The participants shall be engaged in public works like environmental sanitation and beautification, sensitization and enforcement of traffic regulations, provision of support in emergency situations and farming in the state’s farm settlements,” he said.
Continuing, the governor said the youths so employed would be exposed to weekly hours of training in leadership and entrepreneurship, while those of them with requisite capacity would graduate to be given opportunities in the government’s micro-credit scheme for small scale entrepreneurs.
“We shall encourage contractors engaged by the state government to employ participants in the execution of contracts in the state. The government will also establish a Job Opportunity Information Centre in all local government areas where unemployed youths will access real-time information about job opportunities,” he said.
Speaking on the choice of membership of the committee, Governor Ajimobi said the choice of the deputy governor, as chairman of the committee, underscores the importance government attached to creation of jobs for youths.
Responding on behalf of the committee, the Chairman, who is also the Deputy Governor, Mr Moses Adeyemo, pledged the commitment of the committee to the actualization of the goals for which it was set up.
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