Expert urges states to invest in tech to reduce unemployment

As unemployment in the country continue to wreck the nation’s economy, state governments have been advised to invest in technology to reduce the rate of unemployment.

Labour Force Survey released in February 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s unemployment rate increased to 5.0 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 from 4.2 per cent in the previous quarter.

The founder, Akin Oladeji, who decried the unemployment rate in the country, said state governments should commit more funds to training youth in tech skills.

Speaking at the 2024 Lagos Tech Summit tagged, ‘Breaking barriers of unemployment through tech’, organised by Learnwithpride firm in Ikeja on Saturday.

He said such training would create opportunities for more youths to secure foreign remote jobs and help them to create jobs that would reduce poverty in the country

He said, “I believe some states are doing some training, but I think they can do more. If they can invest more funds into this sector and get more people trained in skills that are very lucrative, the unemployment rate will be reduced. You should invest funds into training that will make the youth compete favourably with others.

“Your location doesn’t matter, whether you are in Nigeria, Ghana, or anywhere. As long as you are skilled, you can get a job remotely.

“If the government can invest money in quality training and not just any training so much that if they (trainees) are serious enough they will be able to get jobs abroad from Nigeria. But they cannot compete for those jobs if they don’t have skills to offer. So they (government) should pump more money to train them.”