The Managing Director of Work Nigeria, Olufemi Oyebanjo has unveiled plans for his organisation, Work Nigeria to delist Nigeria from countries with the highest rate of unemployment, tackle crime, the Japa syndrome, and grow the nation’s economy.
Oyebanjo, made disclosed this during an interview with journalists during the week in Lagos, frowning at the high unemployment rate, especially among youths in the country.
He said the company saw it as an opportunity to contribute to reducing the unemployment rate and thereby, improving the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said, “We all know that unemployment is a problem in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the age bracket of people that have this problem or that is mostly affected is the youth. It is our goal to reverse this trend.
“Nigeria tops the list of countries with the highest rate of unemployment, according to the latest statistics released by the World of Statistics.
These are the figures we are here to reverse and let people get jobs, place people in the right jobs, train them on the job, train them for the job, and reduce the Japa syndrome. You can work with any company in the world and still be in Nigeria and that’s where the world is going.
“We see this as an opportunity to make our mark on the sands of time and reduce the unemployment rate in Nigeria and the end, we improve the total Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We have an ambitious goal to put one million Nigeria back to work,” he added.
The MD said that one of the company’s strategies to address unemployment was to operate ‘Catch Them Young’ from the universities, and would engage the Federal, State, and Private universities to see how it could develop or train the students to be job-ready.
“We have some big plans. One of our plans is to operate what we call ‘Catch Them Young,’ from the universities. We want to see how we can work with the universities- Federal, State, and Private universities in Nigeria to see how we can develop or train these children to be able to be job-ready.”
According to him, part of the plans includes inaugurating its first-of-its-kind Job Board in West Africa in January 2024, where employers across the world will be meeting with job seekers, and job opportunities with the right skills.
He said also, that the company would organise virtual job fairs in the universities.
‘’One thing is that we are going to be organising a regular Job Fair, the Virtual Job Fair.
‘’We understand the fact that there are specifically final-year students, who in their final year get very busy doing projects, classwork and other activities.
‘’So, we are going to organise a virtual job fair that will bring employers all over the world into that event; the students will have the opportunity to speak with employers, and HR managers of these great companies all over the world.
‘’Also, the students will be able to prepare themselves, even along the line by the time they finish and then at least at that time, they will know what these companies want and what these employers are looking for.
‘’They will prepare themselves along the line to make sure they are ready by the time they are out of NYSC, ‘’ Oyebanjo said.
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