UP GEJ!: Jonathan launches job creation scheme for 3,600 youths

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan formally launched Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria initiative, also

known as YouWin, one of his administration’s key programmes targeted at youth empowerment, employment generation and wealth creation, with a pledge to make job creation a top priority of the government.

The scheme is an innovative business plan competition that harnesses the creative energies of young people between the ages of 18 and 35, and is largely targeted at owners of existing formal and informal businesses who will be asked to submit their business plans for a competition.

These will be evaluated by a panel of experts and the best submissions from each geopolitical zone will be selected for support.

From Left: Vice President Namadi Sambo; Minister of Youth Development, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi ; Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-iweala, and President Goodluck Jonathan during the launch of Job Creation Programme in Abuja on Tuesday .

At the event which held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, President Jonathan said through YouWin!, over 3,600 Nigerian youth will be financially assisted to actualise their entrepreneurial ideas and plans.

He said it was expected that those to be assisted by government would create between 80,000 to 110,000 sustainable jobs over the next four years.

Jonathan said: “As I formally launch this programme today (yesterday), I am also formally declaring the application for the first cycle open. Following this national launch here, the programme will be re-launched in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country over the next two weeks.”

The President explained that the scheme, which is in fulfillment of his electoral promises, was one of the first programmes to be funded, in part, from the N50 billion job creation fund set aside in the 2011 budget.

According to him, the programme is a demonstration of government’s goal of developing a robust private sector by encouraging locally-owned enterprises.

”In the course of the campaigns for the April 2011 Presidential election, I met many young Nigerians, based at home and in diaspora who have refused to submit to the blackmail of self-defeat and despair, and who are showing great initiative in making positive use of their God-given talents.

“My concern is that we need to grow the population of such positively-attuned youth. It is our duty to identify them early and support them and this cannot be done by merely raising their hopes but by giving them a chance to be who they want to be.”

The President said government, in partnership with other stakeholders, would provide support for the winners to either expand their existing businesses to create jobs for the youth in their locality or start-up businesses that create jobs based on their ideas.

Jonathan pointed out that in line with government’s renewed commitment to regular performance evaluation and measurement, his administration would monitor the programme closely over the next three years of its implementation to ensure it remained responsive to the needs of young Nigerian men and women.

He reiterated his administration’s commitment to comprehensively address the challenge of youth unemployment, saying, “as we invest in the development of their skills, talents and entrepreneurship through programmes such as YouWin!, we provide that mentorship and support that they need to become all that they potentially can be.”

The President recalled the 17th ordinary session of the Summit of the African Union in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, last June, where he spoke about the opportunities on the continent’s demography profile, as projections showed that close to 70 per cent of the African population will be under 20 by 2020.

“I told my colleagues that this constitutes such a large and powerful force for future development. Incidentally, at the summit, I met a young Nigerian entrepreneur who spoke passionately about the challenges faced by young people in business and the need for government to assist them in fulfilling their aspirations.

“That young Nigerian is Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, who represents the can-do spirit of the youth that gives us confidence about the future of our great country. Her call for government’s support incidentally coincides with the commitment we made at the Malabo Summit on accelerating youth empowerment for sustainable development,” he said.

Jonathan charged Nigerian youth derive inspiration from stories of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, saying that “Jobs started his career by building the first Apple personal computer in the run-down garage of his foster parents and he pursued his entrepreneurial dreams to become one of the most influential innovators of the 21st century.