The Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, has disclosed how his government is addressing the challenge of youth unemployment.
Adeleke, during the Careers and Employment Opportunity Fair programme organised by the Ministry of Political Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations in collaboration with federal agencies in Osun State, empathized with job seekers in the state.
The Osun State Governor who was represented by the Head of Service, Elder Ayanleye Aina, explained that the job fair is one of the many initiatives of his administration to open up the job market, create an enabling environment and ensure the engagement of thousands of unemployed youth.
“As a Government, we are determined to address the unemployment question through multiple approach. The Job fair Is only a starting point to exploit opportunities across federal establishments domiciled In the state. Job fairs are potent platforms but our government is doing more than that.
“Part of our employment agenda is to deepen the state economy by encouraging agro-industrial activities among the young and the old. Diversifying the economic base of the state possesses the potential to meaningfully engage our youth.
“Additionally, we are pursuing the localisation agenda in our project implementation. This policy is building the capacity of local contractors and local business to employ more Indigenes in the construction industry.
“Localisation not only strengthen local economy, it imparts technical skill in the local population which increases the employability of our population.
“Our administration is also reviving the technical vocational technical colleges across the State. The focus is to expose our youth population to technical skills to enable them offer services for self-employment.
“The public is also aware of our cooperative loan scheme which is targeting local SMEs. About Four Billion Naira is billed to be disbursed. A strong SMEs increases the capacity of small business to employ more job seekers.
“More importantly, our government is working on a programme of match making between young entrepreneurs and financial institutions. Details of this will be unveil in the upcoming series named “Engagement With Osun Young Professionals”. The Policy Integration Unit in my office Is working on this particular plan”, the governor noted in his speech
Adeleke, however, encouraged youths and the generality of job seekers to improve their skills, both for self-employment and employability, adding that “we must move beyond our paper qualifications to skill acquisition.”