Worried by the increasing population of graduate job seekers in Nigeria,
the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC),
Professor Julius Okogie has called on undergraduates to nurture ideas
which they can turn into successful business ventures.
Professor Okogie’s call was contained in a goodwill message to the 2014
Youth Summit for undergraduates organized by the Ambassador Emmanuel
Oseimiegha Otiotio (AEOO) Foundation in Abuja at the weekend.
In the message that was delivered on his behalf by the Director, Students
Support Services, Mallam Ibrahim Iro Dan-Iya, Okogie said the Commission
had, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, initiated a number of
entrepreneurship programmes for Nigerian undergraduates to enable them,
upon graduation, become job creators rather than job seekers.
According to him, “Some of these include the Network for African Student
Entrepreneurs (NASE) and the Annual National Entrepreneurship Week (ANEW)
both of which are aimed at providing a plaftrom for networking and
exchange of business ideas among students, promotion of entrepreneurship
in the university system as well as projection of entrepreneurship to the
larger society.”
Okogie said the Youth Summit with the theme: “Aspire to Greatness” could
not have come at a better time than now when the increasing rate of
unemployment among Nigerian tertiary institution undergraduates and the
desire to create job opportunities for the teeming youth in the country
had informed government’s decision to “ensure that graduates are equipped
with requisite knowledge and skills to start up small scale businesses for
sustainable living while in and after school.”
He stated that it was against this backdrop that the Federal Government in
2006 directed that Entrepreneurship Education should be entrenched in the
curriculum of all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the country,
stressing that “Hence the NUC introduced GST Entrepreneurship as a
compulsory course for all undergraduates while the B.Sc Entrepreneurship
was introduced as a degree programme in 2011.”
President of the AEOO Foundation, Ambassador Otiotio commended the Federal
Government’s initiatives through the NUC, pointing out that his Foundation
would synergise with and complement government’s efforts at building
capacities for undergraduate youths to enable them start their own small
scale businesses.
Otiotio explained that this would ease pressure on the government as such
small businesses would create positive multiplier effects on the economy
as the businesses would be able to provide employment in the private
sector.
He urged undergraduates who participated at the Youth Summit to be
proactive by coming up with ideas on how to drive Federal Government’s
employment creation initiatives through the NUC, assuring them that the
AEOO Foundation would interface between them and the NUC.
The Youth Summit featured speakers on various perspectives of how to
achieve greatness through setting up of private businesses, motivational
videos, presentation by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development
Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), dance drama on the imperativeness of national
unity, mentoring sessions and presentation of business plans by the
groups.