| SLC-S29/W2-“Thinking and Ideas!| Simple Solutions to Big Problems!”

The Guardian

Across many African communities, daily life revolves around close family ties, shared responsibilities, and the constant effort to make ends meet. Unemployment has always been a long-time visible challenge that affects young people in the society today. Addressing such issues requires solutions that are simple and practical and do not necessarily require the use of technology.
I would love to talk about unemployment as a problem and what solutions can be made to tackle this issue, mostly in Africa.

Unemployment is one of the major problems in most African countries today. Despite having many young, able-bodied youths around, there have not been enough jobs to go around for everyone. A large number of youths remain unemployed due to lack of formal jobs, inadequate skills, and lack of access to opportunities. Some who graduate also roam the streets with their certificate in search of jobs but find nothing worth doing.

Below are some suggestions that can be considered to tackle the issue of unemployment.

Despite having this as a challenge in the nation, there are some simple and realistic solutions to counter this problem. There could be an availability of skills acquisition apprenticeship programs for the youths. This program can help in teaching some youths basic hands-on skills like carpentry, tailoring, shoemaking, barbering, and others, instead of believing that certificates are the only way to succeed. Cooperatives can be formed to organize adequate and appropriate training for those ones who want to learn

Another solution to reduce unemployment is farming. Looking closely, agriculture is the major source of livelihood in Nigeria. If there are no markets, the entire society or economic system will collapse. So with this, the government can buy large hectares of land and employ the youths to help cultivate these lands. Providing these ones with tools and equipment will go a long way to reduce the stress and instead make the work easier.
Food processing facilities like mills for rice, beans, palm oil, and other grains or crops can serve as another source of employment for these ones.
Individuals can look into livestock rearing as another means for survival. Rearing of livestock like poultry, rabbits, fishery, and heliciculture (rearing of snails) can become a means of employment, and then they can grow their businesses on a bigger scale.

This is another busy aspect of the Nigerian community to look into. Market unions and business groups can look into ways to improve the market system to accommodate these ones. Small-scale trading is important because it helps the individual start small and then grow his business day by day. It creates self-employment and reduces dependence on government jobs. Some can generate enough capital to start selling common household items at their homes first, and then, when enough money is generated, look forward to collecting a shop to expand their business.

Selling from home	A provision shop

The rural community and the youth in the society will benefit. There will also be a reduction in the high cost of foodstuff. Those who have a family can contribute to supporting household income.
In general, the society will flourish, and there will be a reduction in social vices, as some unemployed youths go into theft as a result of having no money; instead, there will be an increase in productivity.

Always On Purpose

Despite giving a reliable solution, some challenges and limitations still exist. They include:

1. Some artisans may lack proper training skills
2. Lack of funds to start learning these skills
3. Low societal value placed on vacational skills unlike white-collar jobs
4. Lack of commitment from those being trained

Africa in general can be said to be backwards in terms of technology; we are still developing, but this does not mean that we do not have our strength. We thrive in business and skill acquisition; that is our strength. Taking these things into consideration will help reduce the rate of unemployment drastically, not vice versa.

I invite @bossj23, @alexmartin04 and @omiprincess to participate in this.