Nigerian Government creates University Entrepreneurship Development Programme to promote youth self-employment. By Bolaji Kazeem Job creation through local manufacturing of products is very critical to the economic development of Nigeria as catalyst for advancing employment opportunities to the teeming Nigerian youths. The Nigerian Government is presently focusing on local production of goods that will stimulate the economy, create jobs for its young population as well as take advantage of the huge market in the country and the West African sub- region. In the current year 2013, the “Africa Industrialization Day” celebration with the theme: “Job Creation and Entrepreneurship Development - A Means to Accelerate Industrialization in Africa” captures the agitation of policy makers and experts on the need to support small and medium - scale enterprises in the country. Also, the Nigerian economy is experiencing growth without employment as the rate of growth in the labour force has been exceedingly higher than the employment opportunities that are being created. The unemployed population is presently dominated by the youths who are mostly school leavers with senior secondary school qualifications and graduates of tertiary institutions. As part of the proactive strategies aimed at tackling graduate unemployment across the country, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has flagged off the University Entrepreneurship Development Programme (UNEDEP) to promote self-employment among youths from institutions of higher learning. Government’s mission in UNEDEP’s is to catch young entrepreneurs as the programme focuses on entrepreneurship development for undergraduates to create future entrepreneurs; encourage self-employment; imbibe business ethics amongst the youth and consequently reduce the existence of poverty. The Ministry, however, intends to achieve this through imploration of its existing youth club structure on the ‘Network for African Student Entrepreneurs’ to derive standardised program of activities for its members across all universities. UNEDEP, which is implemented by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, is also geared towards enhancing and re-orientating national values in Nigerian undergraduates, providing mentoring platforms for students as well as reducing poverty and youth unemployment, among others. This model has succeeded greatly in most countries of the world. In Nigeria, the Student for Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) and Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) have provided the leeway for UNEDEP to create opportunities for practical hands-on experience, whilst receiving the necessary business development training assistance from SMEDAN and other providers. In order to address the problem of lack of access to capital, UNEDEP hopes to increase access to finance for young entrepreneurs by exposing them to investors who would fund their businesses. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is aware of the critical lack of access to finance for business people which is particularly high amongst young entrepreneurs. The current national survey on MSMEs conducted by SMEDAN in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics has revealed that eighty four percent of the enterprises in the country secure their start-up funds through personal savings, whereas only four per cent of them secure start-up funds from financial institutions. Across the world, SMEs’ empowerment has become the main economic growth strategy in consideration of its high employment generation capacity. Therefore, with about seventeen million SMEs in Nigeria, the creation of five million jobs is very possible with adequate implementation of the varied initiatives of government as well as the organized private sector in support of the development of MSMEs. The modalities for on-line registration of MSMEs to enable the country have current data, make official informal enterprises, ease the cost of registration, streamline the tax regime and attend to other issues inhibiting business take-off, performance and competitiveness has also been instituted by the relevant ministry. Lately, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment inaugurated SME Councils at the state levels. This was to enable the Federal and State Governments identify the peculiar challenges facing MSMEs in every state, so as to fashion out workable strategies towards holistically addressing them. Africa’s share of the global trade is observed to be as low as three percent only, due to the continent’s persistent exportation of raw materials rather than finished products. Invariably, manufacturing which is critical for wealth creation is the unavoidable solution to the problem of GDP growth, unemployment ratio and dwindling balance of payments. Alongside, the new sugar master-plan freshly approved by the Federal Executive Council is expected capable of raising the country’s local sugar production to a self-sufficiency level; curb high importation of the commodity as well as enhance the production of ethanol; generate about 411megawatts of electricity and create 117,181 jobs. If Government successfully implements the ‘Backward Integration Programme’ which is a very important component of the National Sugar Master Plan developed by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, the sugar sector alone will be able to create more than twenty times the number of jobs it has already created. Presently, an average sugar refinery employs about 1,400 people. But, if the Backward Integration Policy is well implemented, it is hoped that the sector would be able to employ an average of about 100,000 people. Precisely on the 31st of January, 2013 Nigeria experienced improved investment drive through the deal of $1billion dollars (N158Billion) agreed between the Nigerian Government and Messrs General Electric on the establishment of a ‘best-in-class’ assembly in Calabar, Cross River State. Nigeria’s Vice President, Namadi Sambo on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the General Electric’s $1billion service and manufacturing facility in Calabar. The ground breaking ceremony followed from the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga with the Global Chairman / Chief Executive Officer of General Electric, Jeff Emmelt in January, 2013. The efforts of the federal and state governments are geared towards reducing the problem of unemployment among Nigerian youths, having realised that the much sought after white-collar jobs would not absorb youths from secondary and tertiary institutions in great numbers. Nigerian youths in turn are expected to utilise these initiatives from government and private sector organisations for skill acquisition and manifestation of their potentials for entrepreneurship. Realising from the above, one can confidently say that investing on youth empowerment schemes through entrepreneurship promotion is one of the surest ways in which Nigeria can address the twin problems of unemployment and poverty. It is my firm belief that investing in youth empowerment through making Nigerian youth entrepreneurs and employers of labour poses as the most invaluable investments which the Nigerian government is indulging in. Undoubtedly, majority of the 7.2 million MSMEs in the country are owned by individuals between the ages of 36 and 50 years and this attests to the need to empower and rouse Nigerian youths for improved involvement in industrial expansion. Bolaji Kazeem writes from the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in Abuja, Nigeria
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 11:07:36 +0000
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