An entrepreneur and Chairman of Kajaura International Consults Ltd, Chief James Odogwu Okonyia has raised alarm over the high rate of unemployment in the country, declaring that Nigeria may be sitting on a time bomb unless the government take urgent steps to address the situation.
Addressing a news conference in Kaduna,recently, Okoyia said the increasing number of unemployed people, especially the youths poses a serious threat to the security and stability of the country.
“Except something is done very fast about the unemployment situation, it has the capacity to trigger very serious social crises that may have devastating consequences on the polity and the economy of the nation” he said.
He noted that in a country of nearly 25 million unemployed youths and another 35 underemployed young people, the right step towards addressing the problem is for the federal government to declare a state of emergency on employment.
Okonyia who expressed deep concern about joblessness among the youths, disclosed that his organisation, in collaboration with its international partners, plans to establish a $100 million job creation fund to provide skills and job opportunities for the youths.
“We intend to drive a process that will filter out real job opportunities, drive the industry led skill transfer process for the purpose of converting youths with unemployable skills and support manufacturing industries especially agro-allied small and medium scale industries through credit arrangements so that they can provide the desperately needed jobs and revitalise our economy again” he said.
He called on both the federal and state governments to support the initiative by providing the enabling environment, assuring that with the support of the government, 250,000 jobs can be created in each of the states.
