President Muhammadu Buhari declared Saturday in Kaduna that job creation will remain one of the topmost priorities of his administration’s economic agenda because it was vital for the attainment of the Federal Government’s other objectives of improved security and poverty reduction.
Speaking at the 2nd Convocation ceremony of the Kaduna State University which had ‘Entrepreneurship for Development’ as its theme, President Buhari pledged that his administration will give the fullest possible support to all efforts to create more jobs through the reorientation of Nigerian youth towards an entrepreneurial mindset.
“This administration will ensure that youths in the country are gainfully employed and youth restiveness curtailed.
“One of the focal points of this administration is job creation. Job creation will help in the achievement of other objectives of the government such as poverty reduction. Insecurity cannot be divorced from unemployment and poverty because an idle mind, they say, is the devil’s workshop.
“With declining internally generated revenue and over dependence on equally declining oil revenues, there is need to seek other ways of diversifying the economy so as to boost revenue.
“One of the ways we can achieve this is through the reorientation of our youths towards an entrepreneurial mindset. We must therefore promote and enhance the teaching and learning of entrepreneurial skills in all schools and tertiary institutions, thereby exposing our youth to the basics and rudiments of starting and sustaining their own businesses,” President Buhari told the audience.
The President said that to encourage and assist Nigerian youth to move from being job seekers to job creators, his administration will sustain and improve ongoing programmes by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, the Bank of Industry, the Bank of Agriculture and other Federal agencies to grant them start-up loans at concessionary rates.
President Buhari urged the Nigerian private sector to also do more to support government’s efforts to boost youth entrepreneurship and the development of micro, small and medium scale enterprises in the country.
He thanked the university for conferring an honourary doctorate degree of letters on him.
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