Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has called for more partnerships with the private sector and non-governmental organisations to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
This is to improve the financial commitment to Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to support startups and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) operated by young entrepreneurs, which the intervention is currently not enough to cater to the growing demand.
Sanwo-Olu requested this at a meeting with a delegation from Prince’s Trust International led by the charity’s Chief Executive Officer, Will Straw, and chairman of the Board of Trustees, Shabir Randeree.
Prince’s Trust International is a global youth charity founded in 1976 in the United Kingdom (UK) by His Majesty, King Charles III at the age of 27 to tackle the global crisis of youth unemployment.
Lagos state, through the LSETF had sustained over 50,000 new MSMEs established by young people by providing the seed capital to keep the enterprises afloat. The number is, however, a far cry from the demand from young people willing to create and build their businesses.
Consequently, the government wants multiplication of efforts to spread the wealth across startups in the ecosystem and create new jobs.
Hence, the charity is urged to channel its funds towards creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs in need of business development skills and seed capital to widen employability and encourage the growth of MSMEs.
He said: “Lagos State Employment Trust Fund has been doing a lot of great things in supporting local enterprises and startups, but we need to double the numbers in response to high demand and unemployment rates. Yearly, we have a register of a large number of applicants waiting to use the funds to build new businesses and do a lot more.
“Given our large youth population, what we require is skill development. We actually can provide the space and double the resources required to develop these capable young people. We must be able to give this population the right skills and help them to thrive in modern economic realities. This is where charities and other non-governmental organisations in the job ecosystem can provide support and interventions.”
Part of the efforts of the state government is the recently launched Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy (LJLA) geared towards equipping the youth with the knowledge and industry-specific expertise to create wealth and raise future leaders.
The Governor pointed out that advancement in technology had been making the modern economy operate without barriers, praising the charity for embedding technology into its intervention programmes in Nigeria.
“The major takeaway for us as a State Government is the ability to scale up our intervention because we have the numbers. We are not going to take the back seat and watch people to drive this employment initiative. We are willing to participate in this programme by providing funding support to make more young people benefit,” Sanwo-Olu said.
Straw disclosed that the charity had worked with LSETF in the past 20 months and was ready to deepen its relationship with the agency, noting that the organisation had the ambition to support thousands of young Nigerians and others across Africa.
Internationalisation of the charity, he said, was followed by Charles’ visit to Nigeria where he committed to expanding the scope of the intervention to the youth in Commonwealth nations of which Nigeria is a member.
He said the charity had two projects in Nigeria, one of which is “Get Into” which focuses on preparing the young people with skills in teamwork, problem-solving responsibility, and communication.
After the pilot programme, Straw said 96 per cent of the young people trained ended up in workplaces after completing the programme.
The second project of the charity, he said, is Enterprise Challenge — a school-based programme helping young people to gain entrepreneurial spirit in their teenage years.
Straw said: “We know the incredible power you have as a Governor, which is why we would like to work with your office to raise the profile of our programmes and also to think about how we can work together to expand the reach of these programmes.”
The charity’s Africa Advisory Board’s member and founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Atedo Peterside, said the charity made the right choice to choose Lagos as its starting point, because of the eater economic impact that could be achieved by the programmes.
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