A meeting at the Embassy of Nigeria will include Nigerian delegates, as well as business leaders and investors.
Last week, the United Nations held its 72nd session, in which it addressed several points of focus for improving Nigeria’s overall well-being. A central issue in the country is the rising population of youth entering the workforce, coupled with a lack of available jobs. According to a 2015 peer-reviewed article, there has been a 2.5% yearly exponential increase in number of individuals in the Nigerian workforce and the trend appears to remain steady. (Challenge of Job Creation in Nigeria, Alemu, Zerihun, G.) The labor market, meanwhile, has not yet expanded appropriately to sustain the growing workforce, therefore leading to social conflicts that come from unemployed youth. The National Expatriate Mentorship Program (NEMS) addresses the job creation issue by focusing on MSMEs (Micro, small, and medium enterprises), which comprise 97% of Nigeria’s economic revenue (Alemu, 2015).
The meeting today will include the National Youth Services Corps., the Federal Ministry of Education, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Counsel and more.
Opportunities for Youth, Investment in the Future
The agenda for the Nigeria Embassy meeting includes steps to facilitate a mentorship program which will provide young Nigerians interested in public affairs and publics relations internships with professionals in the United States, a course of action which would induce growth and diversity of Nigeria’s economy, in addition to providing business opportunities to leaders and investors worldwide.
“We are thrilled to be able to mentor Nigerian youth the area of public relations and public affairs both in Nigeria and diaspora Nigerians in the United States,” says Glenn Selig, founder of The Public Agency, a leading U.S. based public relations and public affairs. “This is about providing good jobs, with a training in an important communications field.”
Meeting attendees will address the Mentorship Africa Project, motivated by UNESCO, which aims to build peace through inclusive and resilient societies and fight poverty through institutional programs that advocate sustainable development of infrastructure, economy, and unity.
Facilitating Unity and Peace
Now is a time of tension in Nigeria, due to incidents such as the death of 350 Shiite Muslims from Islamic Movement Nigeria (ISN) in a conflict with Nigerian military, from which the leader of ISN, Ibrahim Zakzaky is still detained. Additionally, groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) are pushing for division from the rest of Nigeria. The President of Nigeria, His Excellency Muhammad Buhari, addressed both of these conflicts in his speech to the United Nations. Buhari asserts that we should be “mindful of widening inequalities”. One of the ways to do his, he says, is “through the reorientation of our youths towards an entrepreneurial mindset” and that we must “enhance teaching and learning of entrepreneurial skills…thereby exposing our youth to the basics and rudiments of starting and sustaining their own businesses.”
The current state of affairs calls for measures that will promote unity, cooperation, and peace. Creating jobs would spark on array of improvements in the Nigerian economy and the overall standard of living.
Branching Out
The U.S. International Mentorship facility, motivated by economic, trade, and investment meetings with the Investment section of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., Nigerian economic officials, and the U.S. State Department, have proposed an international Mentorship Office be opened in Abuja, Nigeria, where mentees can continue their training upon return from the United States.
The Publicity Agency, one of the United States’ leading P.R. firms, will directly hire from the internship program and will offer services to companies and organizations looking to do business in Nigeria.
Interested investors and business leaders should contact Franklin Ekechukwu, leader of the Mentorship Program, at (202) 710-4069.
SOURCE: The National Expatriate Mentorship Program
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