The Nigerian government has collaborated with German Cooperation Deutsche Zusammenarbeit on Student Entrepreneurship Activity Hub (SEA-Hub) to spur innovative and entrepreneurial education in Nigerian secondary schools.
This was the crux of the 2nd National SEA-Hub exhibition & competition, implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), GmbH, a pro-poor growth and promotion of employment in Nigeria Programme (SEDIN) which was held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, yesterday.
Speaking during the event, Markus Wauschkuhn, head of SEDIN-GIZ programme, noted that the programme aims to harness and turn the growing population of unemployed youth in the country into an asset.
Wauschkuhn said the programme has become necessary as studies have shown that many traditional jobs will not survive in the years to come. He added that many companies are expected to progressively look to more innovative and creative options offered by entrepreneurial endeavors.
He said, “Lack of employment represents a serious challenge for the Nigerian economy and society.
“About 44 per cent of the working age population are either unemployed, underemployed or have retracted from the labour market. For young people, it is difficult to find full and productive employment and decent work.”
“To harness and turn the growing youth unemployed population in the country into an asset, we need an urgent focus on the economic activities that can thrive and yield demographic dividends for the nation.”
States covered by the SEA-Hub programme include; Edo, Delta, Imo, Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Yobe and the FCT.
“Some of the SEA-Hub graduates have gone further to create over 600 local jobs. The German government’s commitment to the economic development of Nigeria serves as a catalyst for several initiatives and programmes and one of such is the SEA-Hub initiative,” Wauschkuhn said.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in his remarks said that the initiative was borne out of the deep-rooted belief that entrepreneurship is the key to unlocking the potential for economic empowerment and job creation.
The minister, who was represented by Kehinde Osinaike, deputy director, vocational education, of the Ministry said “the laudable initiative is aimed at encouraging the teeming youth to showcase their entrepreneurship creativity, innovativeness, risk taking, self-discipline, proactive and perseverance that will make them to be self-reliant job and wealth creators and confident about the future.
“Entrepreneurship is an antidote to Nigeria youth unemployment. The truth is that the challenge of unemployment cannot be solved by the Government alone. Hence we need to collaborate with relevant stakeholders such as GIZ for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG5).
“This program is in line with the National Policy on Science and Technology Education and Ministerial Strategic Plan [MSP].”
Also speaking, the Economic Education and Entrepreneurship Component lead (SEDIN), Oladoyin Olawaiye, said that over 700 teachers have been impacted directly and indirectly.
She said SEA-Hub, an initiative of the programme Pro-poor growth and promotion of employment-SEDIN, has been introduced as co-curricular entrepreneurship clubs in secondary school to provide practical entrepreneurship training to teachers and students from over 340 secondary schools across 11 states and FCT.
Meiran Community School, Lagos, was declared winner of the 2022 SEA-Hub state competition. 15 secondary schools competed for the most outstanding school -of- the -year.
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