NECA pledges backing for FG’s job creation initiatives

LAGOS, Aug. 11, 2017 (NAN) The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) on Friday said it would support efforts to create jobs for youths in the country, to reduce the growing unemployment rate.

“Nigeria has a population estimated at over 185 million and above 50 per cent of it are youths who are below 30 years, and over 13% of this are unemployed.

“It is important to aggressively develop and make entrepreneurs of Nigerian youths by creating entrepreneurial consciousness among them,’’ Mr Segun Oshinowo, NECA Director General said.

Oshinowo, who was answering questions from journalists in Lagos, said that NECA would continue to collaborate with the government to address the unemployment rate, especially among its youths.

He said the association had been partnering Imagine Business Services to inaugurate the NECAPreneur in Nigeria, in view of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s assertion that the unemployment rate was now at 80 per cent.

According to him, NECApreneur is an e-solution targeted at providing an easy-to-access opportunity for the teeming youths to upscale their skills, rather than continue to wait for white collar jobs.

He said that NECApreneur was in pursuit of NECA’s mandate to influence economic and socio-labour policies to create an army of gainfully employed youths, who in turn would be employers of labour and ultimately enhance national development.

“The target is getting youths to be wealth creators rather than job seekers. A situation where the youths are roaming the streets and available as ready tools for social ills is bad.

“The NECAPreneur is particularly designed for youths and undergraduates in Nigeria and the whole idea is to create an environment where we can get undergraduates to think entrepreneurship, before they leave the university,’’ he said.

The director general, therefore, urged the youths to embrace entrepreneurship, as it would equip them to successfully operate their businesses.