By Favour Nnabugwu

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said that the federal government had set a target of providing 3.5million jobs for Nigerian youths within the next three years.

This is as the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai said it could be a monumental disaster for the country if the federal and state governments failed to educate and empower the youth of this nation.

President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the opening of a 2-day National Economic Council Retreat at the Statehouse Conference Centre on 21st March 2016.

Osinbajo at the official launch of Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) programme, an initiative of the Bank of Industry (BoI) in Abuja, said the federal government solemnly support the brainchild of the bank, adding that it was in tandem with the President Buhari- led administration’s target to provide youths with 3.5 million jobs within three years.

“This administration has a target to provide 3.5million jobs within three years and we are taking records to achieve that target.”
Represented by Mr. Afolabi Imoukhuede, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Job Creation and Youth Employment, the Vice President told the youths not to treat the YES loan as a share of national cake by not repaying the loans to the bank.

“The Yes loan is not a national cake to share therefore we encourage you to repay your loan in order for the bank to accommodate more youths on this initiative,” he said.

Also speaking, Kaduna State Governor said that six million babies were born in the country every year out of which 1 million of them die annually while three million youths were expected to join the country’s workforce.

But for the country to adequately deal with the menace of youth unemployment to ameliorate youth restiveness, El-Rufai stated that the country needs to provide at least three million to four million jobs on a yearly basis.

He said: “For us to treat the present level of unemployment situation in the country, we need at least three million to four million jobs every year.”

Giving a concise picture of the situation in his State, The Governors said, in Kaduna State, 88 percent of the population there are youths below 35 years with 60 percent unemployment rate, adding that, “It is a major challenge training and empowering the youths but it could be a national disaster if we do not educate and support them.”

On his part, the Director-General of the Nigerian Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Brigadier-General Johnson Bamidele Olawumi encouraged corp members to take opportunity provided by BoI to establish themselves.

“I urge corp members to take advantage of the YES initiative to start your own business because the jobs are not just there.”
Olawunmi however guaranteed BoI of a 100 percent repayment plan by corp members.