Nigerian Youths: Issues On Self-employment -By Ufuoma Okoro

Statistics show that 60% of Nigerians are youth and 53.40% of the youths are unemployed, According to the National Bureau of Statistics in 2022, and that’s it also shows that there are 70% of the population under 30, and 42% of the population under 15.

There is a high rate of unemployment among youths because most of them are studying full time and the remaining percentage are likely to be lazy and also they lack entrepreneurship and life skills education. Nigerian youths are likely to invest in Internet fraud due to the lack of entrepreneurship skills like marketing and Nigerian youths have a knack for fast income over the years which is why there’s a rising level of Internet fraud. Research also shows that 90% of youths from the Niger Delta region have been or are in the Internet fraud scheme.

In the southern part of Nigerian, we see that internet fraud has been a norm among the youths and it’s like there are no other routes to money making and being successful again in the economy of Nigerian, some may likely argue till a fight breaks out due to their disposition about the internet fraud scheme.

Also, there are high rates of dropouts, youths might drop out due to lack of funds for university or schooling. There are high possibility of death among the youth because of the lack of funds because most youths might go into robbery and then some of them might have a run-in with the law or some of them might run mad due to the fetishes involved in their search of fast wealth which is mostly called YAHOO PLUS.

The country it’s not promising in terms of the full employment after education. If more pressure is not put in the skill area In 2030 some Nigerian youths are most likely to be truck pushers or a market sellers .

If skills are not taught in schools or skills are not learnt and also if the right of self-employment does not increase among youths there would be high rates of poverty among the youths. They also should be willing to do freelancing jobs because there are more employees than there are employers ,more people coming out of school every day waiting to get jobs from companies, firms, banks, and there should be more freelancing sites ,more knowledge on how to freelance, statistics shows about 80.58% of Nigerians are into freelancing Or are self-employed in 2021.

More life skills and entrepreneurial skills should be taught to youths so that the youths will be independent and free of the government problems. the government has been dominated by favoritism, tribalism and nepotism, the qualified are no longer given jobs, so even if you are done with school you might likely not have jobs and in the future you still would be dependent on the government and an employer, so self-employed skills should be taught to the youths or teenagers early .

Self employment does not only benefit the youths but it also benefits the government because the self-employed skills generate income which in turn the youths used to pay taxes that will be given to what the government.

Then there is crypto , it is the safest and fastest way of income or investment a youth can take part in , If the government would put more effort or if institutions would put more effort into the training of youths on how to trade in crypto currency exchange maybe in the coming years there would a reduction in the internet fraud crime .

There are also many ways a youth in this part of the world is able to make money but we should notice that the fast rising internet service can make way for income streaming in from different part of the world, but there are some skills that should be acquired such as writing skills if you are a writer, you can copy write, ghost write, or if you are in web development, u can secure those skills too.

Some companies are willing to hire youths who have expertise in certain fields of work or skills. Firstly I think awareness should be made so that the youth know that there are other means of making extra money or their main source of income.

Awareness should be made via platforms that would reach individuals under the age of 30 and above 12, because if the information is given early, they would have a better head start than those before them.

An early reminder also makes it easier for them to remember and be able to do it freely without any hassle that may come, in the university you may not have any time or freedom to learn other things except your chosen choice of study as the case may be.

If all this would be done speedily by guardians or the governing party, it would be better for a healthy Nigeria.

Ufuoma Okoro is a student at Delta State University, Abraka,

Oleh Campus

She is currently studying Law and is a first year student.