Unemployed graduates takes advantage of SYOB in Taraba 

Unlike unemployed graduates who have continued to wait on governments for white collar jobs, graduates in Taraba State are taking the bull by the horn and enlisting in the Start-Your-Own-Business (SYOB) scheme of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

The graduates, was at the time of filing this report are undergoing various training on how to be self reliance and be an employer’s of labour, are optimistic, that the training they are presently undergoing would not only wipe off their tears of long job search, but would as well make them to contribute their quotas to the economy growth of both the state and the country at large.

The exercise which was flagged off in Jalingo, the state capital by the state coordinator of the NDE, Alhaji Aderemi A. Adebisi, as noticed by The Guardian, brought together no fewer than fifty graduates from the nooks and crannies of the state who have signified their interests to desist from hoping on government for their survivals.

Certain that the exercise will arm the graduates with the requisite skills on how “to harness them and most importantly how to engage their prospective enterprises” believed that at the end of the exercises, the beneficiaries would be able to “manage their enterprises effectively and efficiently based on best practices.”

Drumming that the ongoing training would as well enable the participants to “write the feasibility study reports of their proposed business” they as stated by him would be equipped with the relevant weapons that enable them to “ analyze their projects to identify the inherent risks and also provide mitigating factors to avert the identified risks.”

The SYOB according to him is solely targeted at graduates of tertiary institutions with the desire to “be employers of labour or at least self-reliance.”

In his word “the multitudes of old and new universities, colleges and other higher institutions in Nigeria, there is an overabundance graduates seeking very limited opportunities especially in public sector.”

Sad with this trend, several of such graduates, he believed will “hardly get befitting jobs for many years after graduation” adding that” there is a mismatch between graduate turnout bis-vis-a-bis their skills and graduate employment in Nigeria.”

Adebisi who was of the view that the scheme “ will in no small way be a catalyst for growth and development of Taraba state and beyond” pleaded with the beneficiaries to tenaciously make use of the opportunity presently being avail to them by the directorate as the world “ of today is been shaped and led by entrepreneurs, men and women who did. It gives up on idea or dream despite the numerous obstacles they faced.”

The directorate, he promised, would continue to ensure that the activities of the directorate are geared towards “combating unemployment through specifically tailored programmed and schemes.”

Earlier, the Acting Director General of NDE, Dr. Kunle Obanyan, reiterated the readiness of the directorate to make available to the beneficiaries, the much needed capital to kick start their business after the completion of the training.

On his own part, the state governor, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku through the Commissioner of Youth and Sports, Gambo U. Ndafor, said the state is ever willing to partner with any organization that is ready to “ join us in transforming our youths.”

Among graduates presently undergoing the training as observed by our correspondent is an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) presently taking refuge in the state.