Experts seek prioritisation of human capital development for youths

To mitigate unemployment, the federal, state and local governments have been urged to focus more on initiatives aimed at developing the skills capacity of Nigerian youths.

This, according to experts, would also provide a total solution to the majority of societal vices plaguing the country such as kidnapping, banditry, terrorism and other anti-social behaviors.

President, Centre for Africa Renaissance, Reformation, and Development (CEFARRED), Dr. Chidi Okpaluba, in an interview with The Guardian in Lagos, lamented that Nigeria and Africa as a whole have men and women who have no skills or training that could give them decent jobs and good quality of life, hence the increasing rate of poverty on the continent.

Okpaluba noted that no skilled human being should be unemployed, stressing that the poverty ravaging Africa currently is largely due to the fact that its leaders are neglecting to develop its most critical resources and killing each other over natural and physical resources.

He said that the Centre plans to equip about 10 million Africans with skills and knowledge that would make them be relevant in the 21st Century knowledge economy through its ‘Every Youth, a skilled project Africa.”

According to him, the human capital of any nation is the most critical and important part of that nation, adding that it is the human capital that can think, create, envision, imagine and bring solutions to problems. He, however, said when the human capital is neglected, the nation is doomed to a life of poverty.

Also, Managing Director, Tropical Gate Ltd, Apostle Mbaigbo Nnamdi, charged the federal, state and local governments to support the skills development initiatives for the sustainable future of young Nigerians.

He said CEFARRED had kick-started the ‘Every Youth a skilled project Africa’ in Anambra State and advised other states to partner in a bid to reducing joblessness at the state and local levels.

Nnamdi said the initiative would focus on empowering the youths with about 250 skill sets based on priority and economic advantage of the communities and assured that it would go a long way in eliminating poverty and boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).