Focus on entrepreneurship to check rising unemployment, CBN Governor urges universities

By Mustapha Adamu, Kano

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has stressed the need for Nigerian universities to shift the academic orientation of undergraduate by focusing more on entrepreneurship development so as to address the surging youth unemployment in the country.
Emefiele made the remark in a keynote address at the 35th Conference of Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities held at Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil on Monday.
The CBN Governor, who was represented by Deputy Director, Development Finance Department, Dr. Adebowale Idowu, said there urgent for the universitied to have a paradigm shift in the academic orientation of our graduating students from job seeking to job creation through entrepreneurship development
“As you may be aware, an estimated 600,000 graduate from our tertiary institutions and enter the labour market annually, after participating in the NYSC programme, seeking the already thinned out white collar jobs. A situation that has contributed significantly to the rising youth unemployment across the country.
“To address this trend, there has to be a paradigm shift in our academic orientation of our graduating students from job seeking to job creation through entrepreneurship development,” the CBN Governor said.
According to him, the re-orientation is also critical to the recovery efforts to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the productive sectors of the economy and the fallouts from the dwindling oil revenues accruable to the country.
“Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) portend great opportunities for addressing these gaps and accelerating the economic growth, leveraging our vibrant youth population,” he said.
He said as part of effort to achieve this objective, the CBN plans to partner with Tertiary Institutions to foster a culture of entrepreneurial development among the youths prior to graduation, by supporting them with start-up capital for their enterprises upon graduation.
“The proposed partnership will also provide a platform for building digital skills that are relevant to Nigeria’s broader developmental goals,”
He disclosed that the CBN is developing a Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) to re-orientate, train and finance entrepreneurship ideas among our graduates.
“The Slscheme is designed to support the development entrepreneurial mindsets and culture through the introduction of a platform that provides seamless access to affordable finance to graduates through innovative channels for participation.
“The proposed Scheme will be targeted at Graduates of Tertiary Institutions, including universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnic and Colleges,” Emefiele said.