How Nigeria’s N-Power Is Empowering Youths: All You Need To Know

By Femi Adeoya

Nigeria as a country has been grappling with the menace of unemployment since ages. Past leaderships and governments have been unable to demystify this social disorder that is fast descending the nation into anarchy. Protracted joblessness is pushing many a youths to depression and crimes making some to resort to armed robbery, kidnapping and ritualism.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s unemployment figures jumped by 30% in 2018 to over 20 million people by the end of the year. It says less than 40% of the nation’s nearly 200 million people are fully employed. Nigeria overtook India last year as having the largest number of people living in extreme poverty — 87 million — according to the Washington-based Brookings Institution. It moved out of its worst recession in almost 30 years in September 2017 and made bouts of economic growth.

However unemployment and poverty have yet to see a positive impact. Youth unemployment has been increasing because most graduates lack relevant marketable skills. The Federal government recently acknowledged that about 80% of Nigeria’s youth are unemployed while 10% are underemployed.

It’s on the basis of this that the Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government introduced the N-Power programme on the 8th of June 2016, one year after it came into power. The program is an initiative designed to train, grant certification and provide jobs for young unemployed Nigerians for a two year period. The government says it aims to engage and train qualified young unemployed Nigerians who meet the required criteria, in order to build a new crop of skilled and highly competent workforce of technicians, artisans and service professionals.

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