WITH approximately 53 per cent of the Nigerian population under 20 years old, which amounts to roughly 128 million people based on recent UN demographic estimates, the country is sitting on a demographic goldmine. At the same time, it risks turning that blessing into a burden.
Ordinarily, Nigeria should be producing a generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, technicians, engineers and skilled artisans capable of driving industrialisation and economic growth.
Instead, millions of young people remain unemployed or underemployed, trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and frustration.
Central to this crisis is a widening skills gap that demands urgent and sustained intervention.
It is somewhat comforting that senior government officials are finally acknowledging this crisis.
The Minister of State for Education, Suwaiba Ahmad, recently lamented on a Channels TV programme that Nigeria lacks experienced hands in many lucrative technical trades.
She bemoaned the fact that Nigerians routinely hire artisans from neighbouring
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