A social development group named Brain Builders International charged the state government on the needs to extend her tentacles to jobs creation for unemployed citizens in the state.
Speaking on the workforce of Nigeria, the group advised the state government on providing workforce that would increase the capacity and availability of employment in the state.
Is the responsibility of the government to provide for the citizens quality education from the primary level to the higher institutions, economies that will continue to thrive are equipping their citizens with the right skills sets to meet the demands of the current realities. As of today, Nigeria has a burden of an unskilled workforce and lack of quality education.
One of the objectives of the SDGs is to create economies that are inclusive, bridges the gap of unemployment and provide citizens with adequate skills for the benefit of the economy.
Brain Builders International, recognize the importance of this goal and carried out a research on the labour force in Kwara state. The goal was to identify the quality of the labour, available resources and how sustainability can be achieved. The survey covered all communities in the 16 Local Governments in Kwara state. With a total of 20, 860 respondents who included entrepreneurs, unemployed, employers, employees and the government.
According to the survey; 36% of participants are unemployed graduates who completed their studies within the last 7 years, 21% working full time and 10% are either undergoing further studies, the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) or interns. Our analysis revealed that there are more unemployed BSc degree holders (40.7%) compared to OND (26.3%) and HND (24%).
By salary, 6% of the salary earners earn between 20,000 naira and below. 27% earn between 20,000 – 49,999 naira.
The highest earners are those who earn above 200,000 naira and they are just 6%. There is also a massive gender disparities with 70% of employed graduates being male.
There is a short supply of highly skilled employees in the state and massive unemployment among the youths.
The future of jobs is digital – high paced and advanced tech taking over. The group believe that this survey will help the government to focus on the areas that need urgent attention and work towards equipping citizens with the right skill-set through developmental projects.
According to the group, reforming the education system is crucial because the system that brought us here won’t take us where we want to be in the future.