Let's Redouble Efforts to Empower Youths, Says Saraki

President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has said that“government, the private sector and academia must redouble its effort to empower Nigerian youth for
entrepreneurship and greater self-
reliance.”

Speaking in his National Assembly
office about the upcoming
technology and skills building
training programme that will be
launched in Kwara State on Sunday,
November 13, the Senate President
said one of the greatest challenge
the country has to grapple with is the
need to gainfully engage the
country’s bulging youth population.
“According to the latest estimate
from the National Population
Commission, Nigeria’s population is
now approximately 182 million
people. More than half of the
population is under 30 and another
40 percent of that are under the age
of 14” said Saraki.
He added that “national leaders like
me have the responsibility to take
heed to these numbers and develop
future oriented technology, training
and employment schemes to
integrate the younger population into
our new economy. We must make
these young men and women
entrepreneurs who can also be
employers of labour instead of
looking for non-existing jobs".
Under the Skills acquisition, Training
and Empowerment Programme
(STEP), 40,000 youths will be trained
over four years with advanced skills
and technology training in areas such
as computer engineering, software
development, animation,
cinematography, event management
and many other areas where the
participants can grow to be self-
employed.
The goal of STEP is to make
participants globally competitive in
the sectors for which they will be
trained. Such preparation is
important for future employment,
starting businesses, creating jobs
and putting able bodied and
motivated youths to work.
“I thought long and hard about how
our society can bring youths off the
margins of society for
entrepreneurship or gainful
employment”, Saraki said. “With the
help of consultants and other
experts, we were able to craft a
programme whereby participants will
be trained by Nigeria’s best and most
successful business leaders,
technology entrepreneurs and other
industry practitioners.”
Saraki also noted that the future of
Nigeria’s economic security rests
with how we prepare today’s youth.
He said the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) predicts Nigeria’s
economy will contract by 1.7 percent
in 2017.
“We must ask ourselves, are we to
plant the seeds for a prosperous and
abundant Nigeria? Or do we ignore
the danger signs about the current
youth bulge?” the Senate President
stated. “I for one believe it is a
national imperative for us to promote
the development and education of
our young people today, so they may
benefit from tomorrow’s global
economy".