NECA’s programme targets jobs, wealth
….As DG decries youth unemployment
In a concerted effort to help combat youth unemployment and foster wealth creation, the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and Imagine Business Services have inaugurated an initiative called NECAPreneur.
Speaking in Lagos, NECAs Director-General, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo said NECAPreneur is designed to alleviate the unemployment crisis of the youthful population where 13 per cent are jobless.
“The initiative in is tandem with 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 add to national development. The target is getting youths to be wealth creators rather than job seekers.”
Oshinowo decried a situation where the youths are roaming the streets and have become willing tools in the hands of policians and even as ready tools for social ills such as thuggery and kidnapping.
He said: “The NECAPreneur is, particularly, designed for youths and undergraduates in Nigeria and the whole idea is to create an environment where we can get our undergraduates to think entrepreneurship before they leave the university, while those who have left and are unable to get a job would be motivated to embrace entrepreneurship as well.”
NECAPreneur, according to him, seeks to aggressively develop and make entrepreneurs of Nigerian youths by creating entrepreneurial consciousness among them.
“As representative of employers, we have the statistics and the fact is that the jobs are simply not there. That is the truth.
“Demand for jobs has by far outstripped the supply for jobs; and this is going to continue for a while; and we would want to enjoin our youths to take their destinies in their hands by embracing entrepreneurship.
“The scheme is activated in tertiary institutions across Nigeria and also opened to the teeming youth that are already out of school. It will not only equip them to birth and successfully run their own businesses, but also lead them into avenues for start-up capital, mentoring, internship opportunities through NECA’s network and eventual certification of successful participants,” he said.
The Entrepreneurship e-learning programme comes in three stages – Basic, Intermediate and Advance.
It is delivered through video tutorial and texts, which is structured into engaging modules. The curriculum is tested, practical and culturally relevant with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
