MEMO TO THE NEW PRESIDENT:HOW TO SOLVE NIGERIAN UNEMPLOYMENT IN JUST SIX MONTHS I

STATE OF THE NATION’S UNEMPLOYMENT
Nigeria is still a nation where guestimate strategy is the only way of getting data for planning purposes. however from the works of several agencies including United nation and western bodies, one can relatively do some sort of planning and forecast about issues especially concerning poverty and unemployment in Nigeria. At the last Conference of High Expert on the employment situation held in April, 2009, Professor Diejomaoh succinctly put a summarized situation of employment in Nigeria as follows:
STRUCTURE OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA BY AGE AND SEX
• The Nigerian Youth bear the brunt of the employment crisis ;
• The unemployment rate of Nigerian youths defined as Nigerians in age15-24 was 34% in 2005,about three times the national composite average;
• Nigerian youth employment is about three times the average rate for sub-Saharan African countries and the global average of about 12%;
• Nigerian youths therefore bear an excessive burden when compared to their counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa and Globally;
• With regard to gender, available data confirms that female have higher unemployment rates both in Urban and rural areas, with the female rate in the range of 12%-14% and males 10%-12%;
STRUCTURE OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA BY EDUCATION LEVELS
• Out of all unemployed persons, about 60% of the total had no schooling;
• Those with primary education level accounted for about 18% of the unemployed;
• Those with secondary education accounted for about 19%;
• Whilst those with post secondary education accounted for about 4%;
• The main conclusion to be drawn from the above is that, whilst the bulk of the poor have no formal education,about40% of the unemployed have formal education, hence there is a significant problem of educated unemployed;
• Education counts. The better educated have better prospects of employment hence the need to expand investment in education.

STRUCTURE OF UNEMPLOYMENT,UNDER-EMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY LEVELS
• The bulk of the employment challenge lies in underemployment or those referred to as the working poor, that is, those who are actually working but cannot make ends meet, that is those who are working but are still very poor;
• Because of variability in definitions and unreliability of statistics, we cannot confidently quote rates of under-employment in Nigeria, but guestimates of about 60% have been cited;
• However, under-employment is very close to poverty levels;
• National Bureau Of statistics data indicate that the poverty incidence,i.e percentage of households living under poverty line was 54% in 2004 ( about 76 million Nigerians are very poor according to the world bank).This figure is higher than about 40% estimated for sub-Saharan Africa’


• Nigeria’s human development index is also below sub-saharan average-yet we call ourselves the GIANT OF AFRICA.