Unemployment is a major issue affecting more than half of Nigeria’s population within the ages 18-35, with a higher rate in the northern part of the country. This fact is supported by data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, which revealed that the rate of unemployment in Nigeria increased to 7.50% in January 2015 from 6.40% in December 2014.
In a nutshell, the country has an unprecedented number of the population badly affected by the scourge of unemployment caused by corruption, mental and financial poverty, poor quality of education, lack of skills, lack of infrastructure and the lack of political will. Its far-reaching effects include political and pseudo-religious thuggery, restiveness, crime, poverty, low national industrial inputs and social inequality.
The young Business Leaders of Nigeria was birthed in a bid to tackle the scourge of unemployment. YBLN is a not-for-profit network of young entrepreneurs and professionals established to develop creative means of solving unemployment in Nigeria.
Recognising the significant role that young people can play in helping solve this crisis, YBLN is a focused attempt at getting a large mass of young people off the sidelines while evolving and maintaining strategies and actions that would help reduce this.
We intend to achieve this by: Improving the skills of unemployed young Nigerians through training, mentoring and connecting them to job opportunities.
Our key target is to reduce the rate of youth unemployment by 3% by December 2016 and 25% in the year 2020.
