The
federal government is set to address youth unemployment through
pragmatism and active involvements of critical stakeholders of the
economy on job creation.
Senior Special Assistant to President
Muhammadu Buhari on Youth and Student Affairs, Nasir Adhama on Tuesday,
said the recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which
indicates that the unemployment rate in the country climbed to 10.4 per
cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 required aggressive approach to
tackle.
“Even though NBS’ data gave a figure of 22million
unemployed or under employed in Nigeria, it can only be adduced that
about 8million youths may likely be within the category of the
unemployed.
“The
current administration is working assiduously to ensure that the rate
of unemployment is reduced through special interventions efforts,
capacity building and skill acquisition where beneficiaries can also be
employers of labour.”
Adhama who spoke at a workshop on drug abuse
among youths in Kaduna said: “Idleness and joblessness can contribute
to drug addictions which can squarely be addressed through active
involvement of youths in productive activities”.
“The youths must
be engaged in productive endeavours not only towards contributions to
the economic development but also to dissuade them from drug abuses and
other social vices.”
Represented by Youth Ambassador, Umar
Galadima, the presidential aide on Youths further called on Nigerian
youths to watch out for positive developments once the federal
government commences the implementation of 2016 budget.
While
putting the active labour force of the country at 76.96m, NBS had
explained that a total of 22.45 million of the total labour force of
76.96 million were either unemployed or underemployed in Q4 compared to
20.7 million in Q3 and 19.6 million in Q2.
The statistical agency
further stated that the labour force population – those within the
working age population willing, able and actively looking for work-
increased to 76.96 million from 75.94million in Q3, representing an
increase of 1.34 per cent during the quarter.
It added that the
economically active population or working age population-persons within
ages 15 and 64- increased to 105.02 million in Q4, from 104.3 million in
Q3, representing a 0.68 per cent increase over the previous quarter and
a 3.2 per cent rise when compared to Q4 2014.
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