From Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt
The Manager of Niger Delta Youth Employment Pathways (NDYEP) of the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), Emeka Ile, has described unemployment of youths as a natural trigger for conflict escalation.
He noted that youth restiveness was often linked to unemployment, poverty and lack of economic opportunities.
Ile stated these in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, yesterday, at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between PIND and RIVTAF Nigeria Limited to partner on NDYEP’s project that is working to equip 3,000 unemployed, out-of-school and vulnerable youths in the Niger Delta with market-relevant skills to secure sustainable jobs.
He also noted that the initiative would go a long way to tackle the challenge of youth unemployment facing governments and development partners in the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria.
The manager said: “Despite the decades of steady economic growth, Nigeria has not made much progress in curbing youth unemployment, as it still suffers from an expanding population of unemployable youths.
“The 2018 third quarter labour force statistics report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that more than 55 per cent of youths in the labour force are either unemployed or underemployed. The unemployment figure is even worse for women at 26.6 per cent, compared with men at 20.3 per cent.
“With an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average, the Niger Delta harbours a significant number of unemployed youths. In the third quarter of 2018, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states recorded the highest unemployment rates at 37.7 per cent and 36.4 per cent respectively.
‘’Addressing youth unemployment is probably the most critical development challenge for governments and all actors at the national and subnational levels, as the situation is a natural trigger for conflict escalation.’’
