AfDB President Bemoans Unemployment Rate in Nigeria

The President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has bemoaned the unemployment rate in the country.

Adesina disclosed this at a lecture in Lagos, titled “Nigeria – A Country of Many Nations: A Quest for National Integration.” He lamented that about 40 percent of youths were unemployed.

He stated that youths in the country were discouraged, angry, and restless as they beheld a hopeless future.

The AfDB President, however, noted that all hope was not lost as youths have a vital role to play if the country should arrive at its destined destination.

A report from the National Bureau of Statistics reveals that unemployment among young Nigerians (15- 34 years) is the highest in the country, with 21.72 million or 42.5 percent of the 29.94 young Nigerians in the labor force unemployed. In contrast, the national unemployment rate stood at 33.3 percent as of December 2020.

“For the period under review, Q4, 2020, the unemployment rate among young people (15- 34years) was 42.5%, up from 34.9%, while the rate of underemployment for the same age group declined to 21.0% from 28.2% in Q2, 2020. 

These rates were the highest when compared to other age groupings”, the NBS said in its “Labour Force Statistics, Unemployment And Under Employment – Q4 2020”. 

Speaking further, Adesina said: “For Nigeria to be all that it can be, the youth of Nigeria must be all they can be.

“The future of Nigeria depends on what it does today with its dynamic youth population. This demographic advantage must be turned into a first-rate and well-trained workforce for Nigeria, the region, and the world.

“We should prioritise investments in the youth: in upskilling them for the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past; by moving away from so-called youth empowerment to youth investment; to opening up the social and political space to the youth to air their views and become a positive force for national development; and for ensuring that we create youth-based wealth.

“From the East to the West, from the North to the South, there must be a change in economic, financial, and business opportunities for young Nigerians.

“The old must give way to the young. And there must be a corresponding generational transfer of power and wealth to the youth. The popular folk talk should no longer be “the young shall grow,” it should, rather, be: “the young have arrived.”

“The young shoots are springing up in Nigeria. Today, Nigeria’s youth are leading in the FinTech Industry. Two companies – PayPal Interswitch are both valued at $1 billion.

“A third company, Flutterwave, more than tripled its valuation in less than a year to over $3 billion. What does this tell us? The future is here, and young entrepreneurs are central to it.

“The African Development Bank approved $170 million in December of last year for Nigeria to support its programme to expand digital and creative industries by unleashing the incredible entrepreneurship of Nigeria’s youth.

“The African Development Bank is also exploring the establishment of Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks — financial institutions for young people, run by first-rate young bankers and financial experts, to drive youth-wealth creation.

“Nigerians deserve wealth, not poverty.  There cannot and should not be a Nigeria for the rich and another Nigeria for the poor.

“We must build one Nigeria, where every citizen has the right to a decent life. We must build a better nation.  We must start building again, not splintering again.

“We must rebuild trust, equity, and social justice, to propel strong cohesiveness as a nation.  The tides are high, I know, and our boat rocks from time to time. Yet, I have hope, hope for a better Nigeria … a renewed nation. Hope for a nation that is helped and healed by God. A nation where the sacrifices of Nigerians past and present shall not be in vain.

“I pray and long for a better Nigeria.   For a nation, built not on the division of its past or the foundations of ethnicity, but on a new foundation of equity, fairness, justice, and unity, one Nigerian to the other.