Gilbert Ekugbe
Expressing concerns over the high level of unemployment rate, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has urged Nigerian youths to focus on agribusiness and entrepreneurship.
Indeed, data from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) puts Nigeria’s unemployment rate as at Q2 of 2020 at 27.1 per cent, representing about 21.7 million Nigerians who are unemployed while over 13.9 million Nigerian youths are unemployed or underemployed.
The SMEDAN South-West Zonal Coordinator, Mr. Shode Olukayode, made this call recently during the training and empowerment of 160 youths on agribusiness in Akure, Ondo State.
According to SMEDAN, participants with innovative ideas would receive financial and technical support through entrepreneurship training.
The six-day entrepreneurship training targeted at encouraging youths to embrace farming and increase the exportation of agricultural produce was organised for some selective cooperative organisations in the state.
Olukayode noted that the training and empowerment programme was the federal government’s initiative to support cooperative organisations.
He added that the event would be held annually, with Ondo and Ogun States chosen from South-west to partake this year.
The zonal coordinator affirmed that the participants were drawn from the 18 local government areas of the state.
On his part, the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, encouraged the youths to venture into entrepreneurship to contribute meaningfully to the nation’s economic growth and development.
Akeredolu, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Multilateral and Intergovernmental Affairs, Mr. Bunmi Ademosun, tasked the youths to use their innovations and creative geniuses to create wealth for the nation.
Also speaking, the Assistant Director of SMEDAN in Abuja, Oluyomi Faniyan, said that the federal and state governments were working assiduously to encourage youths to take up farming owing to its vast potentials.
