Skill deficiency responsible for Nigeria’s worrisome unemployment indices, LCCI avers

Onome Amuge

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has  attributed skill mismatch among Nigerian youths coupled with the discordance between school curriculum and industry needs for the persistent worsening situation  of unemployment in the country.

Toki Mabogunje, the LCCI president, made the disclosure during  a recent news conference organised in collaboration with, The Future Project, an innovative organisation, on plans to train at least 1,000 Nigerian youths under the Future Africa Internship Programme (FAIP).

The LCCI president, represented by Daramola Bamidele, vice president of the chamber,said the training was part of efforts to improve the nation’s employment indices which had risen from 27.1 per cent to 33.3 per cent, according to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

She averred that it was therefore, not surprising that employers of labour bemoan the skill deficiency of job seekers, especially fresh graduates in the country. The discordance between school curriculum and industry needs, she said, affirms why many young people are unemployed.

Mabogunje further asserted that the internship programme initiated by LCCi in partnership with The Future Programme was aimed at enabling thousands of young Africans achieve economic sustainability through internships, adding that the initiative was to also address the discordance between school curriculum and industry, to encourage more skilled and employable youths in the country.

She also explained that the scheme was an industry-focused programme with the mandate to build empowered citizens across Africa through enterprise and citizenship, stressing that it has direct and indirect benefits for the Nigerian economy via the enhancement of human capabilities, likely moderation in social restiveness and improvement in employability of fresh graduates in Nigeria and across the African continent.