It is commendable that the Federal Government has come up with some initiatives to empower Nigerian youths following the recent EndSARS protests across the country. One of the initiatives to address the demands of the protesters and other related youth restiveness in the country is the setting up of the N25 billion youth fund. The government also promised to increase the fund to N75 billion within a period of three years.
According to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, each benefiting youth is expected to access between N250,000 and N5million from the N75 billion youth entrepreneurial support fund. In a parley with 77 District Heads and religious leaders at the Kaduna State University, Kaduna, the minister explained that the amount of money each beneficiary would receive would depend on his business idea, proposal as well as repayment plan.
The interest-free loan, the minister pointed out, would be repaid to the government within a period of five years. Earlier, the Federal Government had set up a committee to address the fallout of the EndSARS protests. The committee headed by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was inaugurated in Abuja by the National Executive Council (NEC). The six geo-political zones are represented in the committee by governors of Sokoto, Borno, Niger, Ondo, Ebonyi and Delta states.
The committee will, among others, meet with the youths, representatives of civil society organisations, religious bodies and traditional leaders on employment, social safety programmes and national unity.
Also, the committee is expected to develop a comprehensive framework and come up with actions the federal and state governments should take to resolve the issues that engendered the protests. Also, it is encouraging that some state governments such as Imo and Oyo are putting some programmes in place to address youth unemployment. We enjoin other states to emulate them.
We welcome these initiatives and others geared towards the empowerment of Nigerian youths and making them owners of businesses and job creators. It is good that the government is directing the youths away from the elusive search for white collar jobs to being entrepreneurs. The ability of Nigerian youths to innovate and create jobs is not in doubt.
What they need now is the current encouragement by the government through the youth entrepreneur support fund and other similar initiatives. Without doubt, the EndSARS protest has yielded good dividends despite being hijacked by hoodlums.
We urge the Federal Government to match its words with action and see to the seamless implementation of this laudable programme. Let there be due process in accessing the fund. On no account should the exercise be politicised.
We believe that this initiative is an improvement on earlier social intervention programmes such as TraderMoni, FarmerMoni, N-Power and others. However, this kind of intervention must not always be ad hoc. Youth empowerment programmes must be factored into our governance agenda. At the same time, there is need to sensitise the youths on this initiative and how they can access the fund.
The Federal Government should work in concert with the states and local governments to enlighten the youths about the programme. We urge Nigerian youths to take advantage of the initiative and access the fund. It is through this kind of programme that the government can grow many Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country and create more jobs.
The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is scary. The rate of youth unemployment is very high. Available statistics show that Nigeria’s unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2020 stood at 27.1 per cent. This means that about or 21.7 million Nigerians are unemployed. In all, over 13.9 million Nigerian youths are currently unemployed.
This is why all tiers of government must work tirelessly to put in place the enabling environment for creation of more jobs by SMEs, considered the engine room of any economy. Let the government emulate China and other Asian countries in its quest to develop more SMEs.