The Industrial Training Fund has stated that Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment rates have been rising daily and that this is a ticking time bomb that needs to be halted, IgbereTV reports
Joseph Ari, the Director-General of the ITF, who made this announcement in Abuja on Friday, encouraged the corporate sector and other stakeholders to collaborate with the federal and state governments to stop this unwelcome increase in order to prevent an economic crisis.
A delegation led by the newly appointed Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, Adewole Oyerinde, was in attendance at the fund’s Abuja offices as Ari gave a speech.
Referring to unemployment and underemployment statistics highlighted by Oyerinde at the meeting, the ITF boss said, “My colleague has reeled out the numbers in terms of percentage of the unemployment rate in our country.
“And it is rising by the day. Rising on account of the booming population, which is youth-based. Also, our tertiary institutions have continued to churn out these young men and women. So we need to do something fast because we are sitting on a time bomb.”
Ari mentioned that the ITF was cooperating with NECA on the Technical Vocational Education and Training to stop the rise in unemployment and underemployment in Nigeria as one of the primary strategies used by the ITF to address the problem
