5.3m youths unemployed — Okonjo-Iweala. I Think Its More Than That.

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday while commissioning the Global Distance Learning Institute, GDLI, in Abuja reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government in ensuring that 5.3 million youths are gainfully employed.
She said unemployment had been a problem before President Goodluck Jonathan’s  administration assumed office,  explaining the reason there were over 5.3 million backlog of unemployed youths in the country.
”Now 5.3 million are unemployed in this country and it has been a backlog. We know that 1.8million youths enter the job market every year, plus the 5.3 million that are on ground. We all feel the Federal Government is not working, but the government is working, and that is wrong.

“We feel how the youths are feeling and if we have 1.8 millon unemployed youths and we create 1.6 million jobs, it gives hope.   No parents would want to spend so much money to send their children to school and sit down. We know that 200,000 youths every year don’t get jobs.
Personally I think the minister is wrong with her fact. With the youths having the highest percentage in the population count and Nigeria at 166 million, I think more than 20 million Nigerians are unemployed. This is based on the statistics from the Trading Economics of Nigeria.
That is my candid opinion.