ABSTRACT
This
study is based on Youth Employment, empowerment and poverty alleviation in Ogun
state. The study critically looks into the background of the study, statement of
problem, significance of the study, scope and delimitation of the study and
definition of terms. In the course of these research works both primary and
secondary sources of data gathering were employed. The study found out that
youth empowerment program, policies are the best for the eradication of youth
unemployment and poverty in Ogun state and the nation at large.
However,
on the basis of the findings the study recommends that vocational skills
training centre should be provided for unemployed school leavers and graduate
of tertiary institution and providing counselling and extension services to
youth on “start your own business”. Also qualified personnel should be allowed
to anchor the youth empowerment programs.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
One
of the major problem that confronted the third world countries is
increasing in the poverty rate, which led to many social vices that prevented
our environment nowadays which is due to increase in poverty level. However,
what is really responsible for the increment was no any other thing than the
unemployment rate that aggravates every day, many able youths who are viable
and competent to work cannot find good job to do. Also, some youth believed
that the only way to change their formal education up to university/polytechnic
level. Not minding the exorbitant fees being paid couple with the strenuous
task they went through in the process with the hope that they will get easy job
whenever they finished their various higher institutions of learning. But, alas
the story is different, they end up working 24 hours on the street working for
jobs which uncertain.
Nigeria
is being blessed with several resources such as crude oil, gas, mines,
agricultural products, forestry and land, just to mention but few. She is most
populous country in African continent being in the 1st position and 7th
position in the world (World Bank, 2014), despite this large population it
appears that the population is liability as opposed to asset due to the failure
of the country to control and manage the growth of the population through
meaningful policies (Abdussalam et al., 2013). Kaiz and Leonard (2012) claimed
that poverty is getting worsening as the economy is gaining positive growth
likewise the rich are getting better while the poor are getting worse (cited in
Odeh & Okoye, 2014).
Poverty
has been one of the most serious problems facing humanity for many generations
as it poses a lot of challenges to the social, political and economic
development of all countries around the world. It reduces the productive
capacities of the citizens of the poor countries, thereby constraining the
development efforts of the state while at the same time creating a dependence
syndrome in international relations. The greatest incidence of poverty has been
most felt in the developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and
Latin America (World Bank, 2001), and the slow rate at which policies for
poverty eradication were intervening always presented a daunting task to governments
of the whole world.
This
trend was likely to continue for many years to come if the right policy dosage
was not found soon. Various questions were posed concerning the slow rate of
poverty eradication despite continued policy undertakings by governments
locally, regionally and internationally. With time, there appeared to be an
emerging agreement among scholars that poverty eradication policies were not
scoring successes due to the nature of the policy flow and the low level of
good governance practices in the developing countries (Kanayo, 2014; Aminu
& Onimisi, 2014).
Poverty
has been tremendous and continuous challenge facing many third world countries
including Nigeria. The major national problems worried Nigerian economy, today
are among others corruption, unemployment and poverty (Akpan, 2011). Persistent
increase in the rate of these problems is generating much concern for the
government. One of the economic characteristics of the poor and poverty is that
they are characterized as young as opposed to old people (Todaro, 2009:170).
Therefore, it is very crucial to empower the youth in any given economy
particularly, Nigeria in order to reduce the level and rate of poverty in the
society. It is noted that part of the challenges facing governments of many
developing countries are to minimize income inequalities between the haves and
haves not or the high-income earners and low-income earners as well as
alleviate poverty in their immediate societies although, Nigerian government
had demonstrated many efforts in the past through various programmes and
institutions purposively to address the problem of poverty in the society
(Ahmed, n.d.).
Youth
Empowerment Scheme (YES) is one of the area targets in the National Poverty
Eradication Programme (NAPEP) in tackling poverty incidence in Nigeria.
Therefore, this research work intends to examine the extent of the impact of
the YES in Kwara State, Nigeria. This is a grass root economic package aimed at
developing Nigerian youth under the national programme of NAPEP. Some of the
benefits and activities under the YES programme in Kwara State include
provision of training skill, working tools, vocational job and micro-credits
for self-reliance, self-actualization and employment opportunity.
Nigeria
remains the most populous country in Africa and one of the best endowed. The
country is endowed in terms of abundant deposits of crude oil, mineral
resources, agricultural products and human resources etc. Nigeria has 10th
largest proven oil & gas reserves in the world; while within OPEC it is the
6th in terms of reserves and daily production (Adeola 2001). Nigerian oil and
gas exports account for more than 98% of her export earnings and about 83% of
the federal government revenue (Adeola 2001). Oil alone generates more than 50%
of its GDP and provides 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of
government budgetary revenues (Wikipedia, 2012).
In
addition, Nigerian average GDP growth is consistently between 5-8%. Despite the
positive macroeconomic indicators of Nigeria, more than 70% of its population
live under poverty line of $2 a day. This may be corroborated from the views of
Leonard and Kazi (2012); who state that despite the fact that Nigeria’s economy
is projected to be growing, poverty is likely to get worse as the gap between
the rich and the poor continues to widen. They further asserted that the
poverty rate in Nigeria was 71.5%, 61.9%, and 62.8% using the relative,
absolute and $1 a day measures respectively. Mohammed (2004) on his part
observed that despite these huge resources, Nigerians are wallowing in abject
poverty with its attendant social, economic, political, and psychological
consequences.
The
picture of Nigeria as a paradox by the World Bank (1996) has continued to be
confirmed by events and official statistics in the country (Obadan, 2008). The
paradox is that the poverty level in Nigeria contradicts the country’s immense
wealth. Despite the fact that the Nigerian economy is growing, the proportion
of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year (Tribune, 2012).
According to Obadan, (2008), rather than record remarkable progress in national
socio -economic development due to her enormous wealth, Nigeria retrogressed to
become one of the 25 poorest countries at the threshold of twenty-first
century.
Patrick
(2005) confirmed that at least seventy million Nigerians now live below the
poverty line when compared with eighteen million in the 1980s. Nigeria remains
the only member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that
is categorized among the world’s poorest twenty countries (Adeola 2001).
Okunmadewa (2001) on his part, stated that Nigeria ranked fifty-fourth with
respect to human poverty index (HPI), making her the twentieth poorest country
in the World. Furthermore, Oviawe (2010) opined that the increasing rate of
crime such as armed robbery, advance fee fraud (419), corruption, prostitution,
nepotism, drug trafficking, cultism and other social vices are definitely the
product of persistent poverty through youth unemployment in the country.
However,
the rate at which the poverty levels increases as shown by experts called for
policies that have been design by the Federal, State and Local government to
correct the situation. Meanwhile Ogun state government under the present
administration, which is headed by Otunba Gbenga Daniel is not left behind in
the process. The present dispensation thinks that the only way to ameliorate
the lives of our people and mostly the youths is by empowering them and bring
them to be creative rather them depending on the white collar job which is not
certain. To this end since the introduction of the policy, how far does it
gives to reduce the rate of poverty in Ogun State? This is the purpose of our
research work. We want to carry out our findings to analyze the “Youths
employment, empowerment and Alleviation/ Eradication of poverty in Ogun State.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF PROBLEM
Successive
governments in Nigeria have continually made efforts to address the challenges
of poverty in the country through different government anti-poverty programs
since independent to date, some of these programs include National Poverty
Alleviation Program (NAPEP), Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), Rural
Infrastructural Development Scheme (RIDS), Natural Resources Development and
Conservation Scheme (NRDCS) Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency
(SMEDA), Directorate for Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI) to
mention but few (Hussaini, 2014). But most of these poverty alleviation
programs are embedded with several challenges culminating to their failures.
Therefore, this paper intends to evaluate the impact of the youth empowerment
scheme program on national development as one of the mechanisms put in place by
the government towards alleviating poverty in the country. These are numbers of
problem that contributes to increased poverty in Nigeria. These problems are
summarized as Macro-Economic distortion, Effect of Globalization, Poor
Governance, Corruption and Low Productivity etc.
1.3
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main aim of the study is to critically examine
the development programmes for youth empowerment, employment and poverty
alleviation. Specific objectives of the study are:
i. to establish the needs for the creation of youth
empowerment programmes;
ii. to evaluate the strength of the programme in its
aim to alleviate poverty; and,
iii. to investigate if government are supporting,
the extent of their support and the feasibility of the programmes to alleviate
poverty amongst the youth.
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTION
These
are the various questions that come up in the process of the research and it
includes:
i. Is
there any need for the youth empowerment?
ii.
Can the youth empowerment programme reduce the level of poverty in Ogun State?
iii.
Is government really assisting and can the youth empowerment programme be
regarded as the best programme to alleviate youth suffering in Ogun State?
1.5 SIGNIFICANTS
OF THE STUDY
This
project or work will be very crucial or important and useful for those
undergraduate students who are writing their project on this topic and for
government officials, lectures and those who intend to know more about poverty
in Ogun State.
1.6 SCOPE
AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The
research work will be design to cover the youth employment, empowerment and
alleviation eradication of poverty in Ogun State using Ogun State employment
generation programme as a case study. Generally speaking, all areas of human
endeavours are characterized by some limitation factors and a research work of
this nature is therefore not accepted, by this the study does not intend to
look into the detail of the poverty alleviation in Ogun State due to the
following limited factors
Time: The
paucity or smallest of available time for conducting the study constitutes one
of the limitation for the scope of the study and also because of our fast
approaching examination.
Cost:
– The amount to be expended on this
project is very large and due to non- availability of enough fund we’re
restricting our writing to this extent.
1.7 DEFINITION
OF TERMS
These
are the terms that we would be using in the course of writing our project or
research work and it includes:
POVERTY: According
to Asolo Adewale Adeleye poverty in a plan language can be defined as the
condition when the income level of individual is grossing insufficient toward
achieving a satisfactory level of welfare. It is a situation or level when the
poor lacked basic necessities of life and resources to meet their standard of
living.
ALLEVIATION: These
are the various measure put in place for eliminating the poverty level of an
individual or society. The alleviation strategies adopted by the Ogun State
government include (OGEGEP) activities that will ensure job creation, food for
the citizens and the development of agro bases industries.
YOUTH: This
is person aged from 15years to 30years who are strong to work effectively and
efficiently with the use of physical and mental ability to gained through
education
EMPLOYMENT: According
to Oxford Advance learner dictionary of current English, the word empowerment
means preparing and inculcating in our youth sense of belonging that will
enable them to assume leadership position with a view contributing effectively
to the national development when the need arises.