By Yinka Ajayi

To eradicate youth unemployment through skill acquisition, founder, Richard Adebayo Idowu Global Foundation, has urged participants to be optimistic by considering the lucrative angle of knowledge acquired through the Foundation.

Speaking in Lagos, Mrs. Modupe Ayinde, Executive Chairman of the Foundation, on behalf of the founder, said: “While youth unemployment looms, we observed that skill acquisition, Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs have become the life wire of Africa’s largest economy.

•SME operator at work

We intend to address unemployment through sustainable mechanisms, like skill acquisition and scholarships for exceptional students to study overseas, women empowerment as well as health and education for all. We congratulate participants and urge them to see the acquisition program as an opportunity to start a lucrative career so as to reduce the unemployment rate””.

Meanwhile, facilitator of the program, Miss Olajide Mojisola, a graduate of sociology from the University of Lagos, commended former President Jonathan for initiating skill acquisition in the National Youth Service Corps NYSC programs. According to her, “Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration gave most Nigerian graduates the privilege to acquire entrepreneural skills while in service and I am a proud beneficiary of the gesture.

If you want to learn a trade, be focused and learn it properly, you don’t treat such knowledge with levity. After attending skill acquisition in NYSC , I also did out of camp training on shoe and ankara making. Ankara bags and shoe making should be lucrative. If Nigerians patronised made in Nigeria products, it would create jobs for unemployed youths”.