About 46 per cent of youths in Kwara State are unemployed, the Special Assistant to the Governor on youths, Mallam Saka Babatunde has disclosed.

He said government has garne-red the data of the affected youths and devised programmes to make them gainfully employed. One of the programmes, he explained, was the entrepreneurship training in partnership with the state university (KWASU) to imbue them with the requisite entrepreneurial know-how to become job creators.

He stated this at the weekend during the Youth Training Retreat organised by the state chapter of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) with the theme, “Youth Capacity Building; Recipe for Security and Economic Stability”.

Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold noted that security challenges “have caused incalculable damage to the social, economic and political development of this great nation”, saying the scenario of youths-induced crises “would have been averted if the efforts of stakeholders are aggressively geared towards building capacity of youths and creating avenue for their positive engagements”.  

Represented by Mr. David Adeshina, He added, “Even though Kwara State is relatively peaceful, there is need to consolidate these policies that are assisting to help our youths contribute to the socio-economic stability and development of the state”.

The state NYCN chairman, Comrade Kazeem Adekanye advocated for economic and political empowerment of youths just as he advised the youths to embrace entrepreneurship development to add value to their lives.

“The truth must be said. We the youths are running away from responsibility. That is not good for our development, both personal and collective”, he advised.