The President of Junior Chambers International, Sandra Efemuaye, has counselled Nigerian youths to explore the rich opportunities in entrepreneurship to fight unemployment in the New Year.
Efemuaye disclosed on Saturday during the Southwest Area Presidents meeting of the association held at Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
She urged youths to embrace entrepreneurship rather than wait for paid employment.
Efemuaye said, “As a foremost leadership development organisation for the youths, we are well aware that the major challenge facing the country is unemployment and statistics have shown that the youth account for about 64 per cent of this challenge.
“While we agree that the government has a role to play in solving this problem, we also believe that the youths have a bigger role to play because our mindset training in JCI is tailored towards what can I also do or contribute to making society better.
“So, we are saying that in this year 2024, the Nigerian youths should embrace entrepreneurial skills. They should try to see what they can do on their own, to avoid pursuing the jobs that are really not there.”
The National Bureau of Statistics in its Nigeria Labour Force Survey report for Q2 2023 said, “The rate of unemployment among persons with post-secondary education was 8 per cent in Q2 2023. The unemployment rate among youth aged (15-24 years) in Q2 2023 was 7.2 per cent having been at 6.9 per cent in Q1 2023.”
According to the JCI president, last year, members of the association had access to over 1200 soft skills.
“We equally provided them with mentorship so that the mistakes others have made, they won’t make it. This is the way to go to reduce the burden of unemployment. JCI will be doing a lot in this regard this new year,” she remarked.
Efemuaye tasked youth who find themselves in the corridors of power to be of good conduct, and patriotic and not be involved in any form of misdemeanours that could deny other youth the privilege of being considered for leadership positions in the country.
She said that the association would also pursue aggressively building its national permanent secretariat this year, saying that an association that has been in existence globally for over 100 years and over 60 years in Nigeria deserved to have a befitting secretariat that its thousands of members could be proud.
