As unemployment rate, particularly among youths in Nigeria is increasing each day, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on the media to scale up their support for youths to explore opportunities in digital space to address the challenge.
Programme Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria, Joannes Yimbesalu, made the call at a two-day media dialogue on the role of digital learning platforms organised by UNICEF in conjunction with the Lagos State Directorate of National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Lagos, recently.
Aside newsmen from across print, broadcast and online platforms in the South-West, fresh graduates undergoing their one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme as well as students from the University of Lagos, University of Ibadan and the Lagos State University, Ojo, among others were in attendance at the roundtable.
Speaking further, Yimbesalu said there are many opportunities that youths including students not only in Nigeria but also elsewhere could explore in digital space to thrive in life and become responsible citizens.
He said unfortunately, many youths are either unaware or not looking in the direction of the opportunities which he said could make many to remain non-economically engaged for many years.
Yimbesalu explained that another issue is that most often, youths’ voices are not heard particularly on matters that concern them by the policymakers and that alone would certainly deny them of government policies and programmes that would impact them meaningfully.
He said of a truth, Nigerian youths are resilient and innovative to do great exploits and achieve success in various fields of endeavours but many of them lack necessary support, especially in terms of funding and capacity development to drive and realise their dreams and ambitions.
He said even at that, there are many digital platforms such as the Youth Agency Marketplace (YOMA), U-Report as well as Nigerian Learning Passport (NLP) – all UNICEF’s initiatives – that youths and students could explore for empowerment, skilling and up-skilling, employment opportunities as well as teaching and learning as the case may be but that many are not utilising them.
He explained that YOMA for example is a digital market hub for youths globally to build and transform their future by actively engaging in tasks that will improve their learning and earning opportunities while U-Report is a poling platform for youth engagement on issues of national importance and NLP a platform to complement learners’ classroom studies.
“So, it will be a good thing for the media to look in these directions and support the youth by educating them on the gains and benefits inherent in these platforms and also amplifying their voices to attract attention of stakeholders, particularly government so that policy makers would take necessary actions to address their concerns,” he stressed.
On her part, NOA Director, Lagos State directorate, Mrs Adetola Adegboyega, said youths unemployment could truly be reduced to a barest minimum, if not totally eradicated, if youths could explore opportunities in digital space to make something meaningful and legitimate out of the system.
She said youths, for example, could learn and undergo training even on their own on digital platforms and acquire knowledge and skills that would boost their competencies for the world of work and earn decent and legitimate incomes either as employees or employers of labour.
She said social media is not created for internet scams popularly known in Nigeria as ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ and youths should therefore explore it only for activities that would meaningfully impact lives and project the country in a positive light.
In her own contribution, the Head of Communication, Stakeholder Management and Promotions, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), Taye Tunkarimu, also harped on the need by youths to use digital platforms to engage in economic activities that would not only take them out of poverty but also make them to contribute significantly to the national growth and development.
Using Lagos State as a reference, she explained that the establishment of LSETF as one of the initiatives of the state government is to tackle unemployment among the economically active population in the state.
She said the agency in the last seven years of its establishment has helped many micro, small and medium scale entrepreneurs to grow and stabilise their businesses in various sectors of the economy.
She said the agency does this by supporting them with soft loans, training them and also buying some of their products.
She said the condition is that beneficiaries must not only be registered Lagos residents and taxpayers but also must have also registered their businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), among others.
Speaking about NLP, the Director of Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Dr Afolabi Adejare, said the state government had already embraced the UNICEF-created digital platform with schools, students and teachers in the state accessing its contents on various subjects for learning.
He said the platform is being used in the state alongside other digital learning platforms such as EkoEXCEL and coding among others that were instituted by the state government to complement the existing classroom methods of impacting knowledge.
He said UNICEF would need to be commended for coming up with such a rich platform and making it accessible freely for learners in schools and at homes.
He said the gesture shows clearly that the global agency is really committed to contributing substantially to the development of education in Nigeria.
Giving insight into the platform, UNICEF Communication Officer, Blessing Ejiofor, said the new learning passport is actually designed to narrow digital learning inequalities by reaching the most marginalised children and youths including girls and young women and preparing them well for the world of work in future.
She said that is why users can access the platform, which is tailored along national curriculum and for Nigerian schools, both online and offline anywhere they are, urging the media to advocate on its gains and benefits so that more users including those in remote communities and informal school setting could explore it to enrich their studies.
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