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Policy & Public Administration

EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC POLICIES TO REDUCE YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

BY

ORIBUYAKU DAMILOLA

Word Count (excluding references): 829

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1. Introduction

Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities formulated by a

governmental entity. In the scholarly literature, there is a general consensus that public policy is a course of action (or non-action) taken by a

government or legislature with regard to a particular problem. Many policies have been developed and implemented to reduce unemployment

of youths in Nigeria. This essay argues that some of these policies have not made the required impact as a result of the factors identified in the

essay, and so unemployment of the youths continue to grow rather than shrink in Nigeria.

2. The state of unemployment in Nigeria

The story of Nigeria’s worrisome unemployment is often told in juxtaposition with the country’s fast and steady economic growth in recent

years. While it became the largest economy in Africa in 2014 as Nigeria gross domestic product became $510 billion after the rebasing, Nigeria’s

unemployment rate in 2010 was 21.1%, it increased to 23.9% in 2011 reaching 54% in 2012 (Tribune, 2015).

To take a closer look at the unemployment problem, economists make a distinction between age unemployment (adult and youth), and gender

unemployment (male and female). The main indicator of youth unemployment is the youth unemployment rate for the age group 15-24

(eurostat, 2015). It is the number of those unemployed divided by the total number of people in the labour market (eurostat, 2015). According

to the World Bank, as reported by Tribune (2015), youth unemployment in Nigeria stood at 38% as at 2013.

3. Need to fight unemployment in Nigeria

Youth unemployment is potentially dangerous as it threatens the sustainability of any nation’s economy. As events in North Africa have shown,

lack of employment opportunities can undermine social cohesion and political stability (Onuoha, 2013). Africa Renewal (2013) found that,

although Boko-Haram is mainly driven by ideology, pervasive unemployment in northern Nigeria makes for easy recruitment of jobless young

people.

4. Public policies towards employment generation for youths in Nigeria

Many policies have been developed to reduce youth unemployment in Nigeria. The major ones include the creation of the National Directorate

of Employment (NDE) in January 1987. NDE was created as the main organ of government to combat unemployment. NDE (2015) states that its

mission is to design and implement job creation programmes that will promote attitudinal change, employment generation, poverty reduction

and wealth creation.

Another policy was the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) in 2001 With the major mandate of monitoring and coordinating

all poverty eradication efforts in Nigeria with a view to harmonising these efforts and bringing about the focus and complementation required

at all levels to ensure better delivery, maximum impact, effective utilisation of resources and easy review According to a 2008 analysis, the

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program has been able to train 130,000 youths and engaged 216,000 persons, but most of the beneficiaries were non-poor (Karl, et al., 2008).

Next is the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment programme (SURE-P) which was established by the Federal Government In 2012

as a result of some reduction in petroleum subsidy which was used to fund the scheme. The SURE-P activities include the Graduate

Internship Scheme (GIS), Community Services Scheme (CSS), Vocational Training Scheme (VTS), and Community Services, Women and Youth

Empowerment (CSWYE). The activities were all geared towards providing employment.

Another policy is the YouWiN, which stands for Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria. It is an innovative business plan competition aimed

at job creation by encouraging and supporting aspiring entrepreneurial youths in Nigeria to develop and execute business ideas.

Finally is the NYENET, which stands for Nigeria Youth Entrepreneurship Network. It is a one stop shop to empower and support Nigerian

youths. The NYENET is not a programme, but a portal through which government programmes targeted at young entrepreneurs can be

accessed. The portal has other functionalities including a chat-room for entrepreneurs, matchmaking entrepreneurs with mentors, and assisting

entrepreneurs to access funding.

5. Impact of the Policies

The Nigerian government has done well in identifying the problem of youth unemployment, which has led to the policies and programmes,

some of which have been highlighted in this essay. However, the policies were not properly planned and in some cases not properly

implemented. Reasons for this include the bureaucracy and inefficiency in the public service. As Asaju et al. (2010) asserted, the Nigerian

Public Service remains an obstacle to effective implementation of government policies and programmes. Furthermore, there were no

continuity in the policies. According to Audu & Okumoko (2013), Nigerian governments resort to stopgap and unplanned measures whose

unintended consequences are not well assessed and considered.

6. Conclusion

Arising from the issues raised in this essay, it is safe to conclude that, although public policy is an effective strategy to reduce unemployment

of youths in Nigeria, past policies have generally not made the desired impact due to poor formulation, poor implementation and lack of

continuity.

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References

Achimugu, H., Stephen, M. R. & Aliyu, A., 2013. Public Administration and the Challenge of National Development in Nigeria: Issues and Concerns. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(6), pp. 2039-2117.

Africa Renewal, 2013. Africa’s youth: a “ticking time bomb” or an opportunity?. [Online] Available at: http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/may-2013/africa%E2%80%99s-youth-%E2%80%9Cticking-time-bomb%E2%80%9D-or-opportunity [Accessed 23 May 2015].

Asaju, K., Samuel, A. & Silas, A., 2010. The rising rate of unemployment in Nigeria: the socio-economic and political implications. Global Business and Economics Research Journal, 3(2), pp. 12-32.

Audu, N. & Okumoko, T., 2013. Financial Development and Economic Growth in Nigeria. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(19), pp. 69-81.

Burns, M., 2013. The Policy Process Model & Agenda Setting. [Online] Available at: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/burn0277/pa5012/2013/03/agenda-setting.html [Accessed 22 May 2015].

Christoph, K. & Jale, T., 2012. Public Policy: A New Introduction. 1st ed. London: Palgrave.

Eme, O. I. & Emeh, I. E., 2012. Bureaucracy and Rural Development; the Role of Public Administration in National Development: The Nigerian Perspective. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 12(4), pp. 18-40.

Employment, N. D. o., 2015. Our Mission. [Online] Available at: http://nde.org.ng/ [Accessed 24 May 2015].

eurostat, 2015. Youth unemployment. [Online] Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Youth_unemployment [Accessed 22 May 2015].

Karl, W., Reuben, A. A. & Phillippe, B., 2008. New Growth and Poverty Alleviation Strategies for Africa: International and Regional Perspectives. 1st ed. Berlin: LIT Verlag Münster.

Onuoha, F., 2013. Why Do Youth Join Boko Haram?, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace.

Ruma, B., 2015. Tackling Youth Unemployment is the Most Important Issue. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ruma-bose/tackling-youth-unemployme_b_3954804.html [Accessed 22 May 2015].

Thei, G., 2013. Public Policy Making: The 21st Century Perspective, Apeldoorn: Be Informed.

Tolu, L. & Abe, O., 2011. National development in Nigeria: Issues, challenges and prospects. Journal of Public Administration and Policy Research, 3(9), pp. 237-241.

Tribune, 2015. Nigeria’s unemployment rate hits 22% -World Bank. [Online] Available at: http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/house-of-reps/item/21832-nigeria%E2%80%99s-unemployment-rate-hits-22-world-bank.html [Accessed 22 May 2015].

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Oribuyaku Damilola is an economist with strong econometric, R-programming, writing,

and presenting skills. He has strong academic education in economics up to postgraduate

level. In his 3 years’ industry experience, he has employed NVIVO and SPSS in qualitative

and quantitative analyses of key industries in Nigeria. He has worked for international

organisations such as Access bank Plc, Setraco Nigeria Limited and Bull Moose Derivatives,

London. He is able to produce high quality, innovative research notes for a wide range of

audiences based on key economic trends. He has a real enthusiasm for economics and a

strong desire to forge a professional career as an economist.