By Ikechukwu Odu

Bothered by the unemployability of most Nigerian graduates and the need to embrace entrepreneurship in this era of scarcity of white collar job, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, and the CEO of Peace Mass Transit Ltd, Dr. Maduka Onyishi, yesterday, mentored Nsukka youth on entrepreneurship and employability skills.

Governor Ugwuanyi, while addressing the over 3000 youth of the Nsukka cultural zone at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium, PAA, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, during the kick-off a seven-day training summit tagged ‘Nsukka Youth Entrepreneurship and Employability Summit 2020’ said his government has already keyed into Small and Medium scale Enterprises for the youth of the state at large.

The governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche Eze, in the event also said that entrepreneurship and skills acquisition trainings remains the panacea for wealth creation and taking the youth of the nation off the street.

“What is happening here today is in line with the vision of my administration for youth development. Today, government is making opportunities available for young people in the state through the SME programme. It is an agency of the government that trains the youth on entrepreneurship and provide start-up fund and facilities for beginners.

“Another effort we are making is to re-evaluate the curriculum of our educational system to infuse entrepreneurship and other vocational studies into it.

“We are here to challenge you to take up skills which would make you not to be going from office to office, looking for jobs that are not there. Become creative and solve problems in your immediate environments, that is how to create wealth.

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“You may be a university graduate with first-class certificate but without employability skills. Some of the problems we have today is that of graduates that are not employable. Some of them are without skills. Success in whatever you are doing depends on your level of commitment to your chosen endeavours. You have to be creative, innovative and have problem-solving skills to succeed in life,” he said.

During his keynote speech, the business mugul, Onyishi, told the youth that “Those that made money are not the most intelligent but those who took their ideas to the market for money.”

He told the youth to always seek for the services of expertise to mentor them on the best way to succeed in their entrepreneurial endeavours, adding that some ideas die prematurely because of lack of mentorship.

He charged the youth to acquire relevant skills in Information and Communication Technologies, ICT to remain relevant in today’s society, adding that most disciplines cannot be practised without in-depth knowledge of information and softwares.

While speaking to Vanguard, the converner of the summit and the CEO of Afriwise Global Limited, Ernest Ike-Ugwu, said he decided to organise the summit to bridge the knowledge gap in the society; especially, in Nsukka cultural zone.

Ike-Ugwu who also bemoaned the unemployability of most Nigerian graduates said that what is lacking is not jobs but the requisite skills to execute them, adding that the summit will change the orientation of the youth of the zone towards embracing needed skills required for the 21st century industries.

Vanguard