Ministry Inaugurates Labour Exchange Centre for Jobless Youths

Funmi Ogundare

The Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment recently inaugurated the job registration/labour exchange centre, designed to enable jobless youths and artisans get their data captured and a guidance and counsellor to register and guide them through a career path.

The programme, held at Ojo Local Government Secretariat, will also enable the government to know the number of graduates and the unemployed in the state.

In his remarks, the Commissioner, Mr. Babatunde Durosimi-Etti, said the centre is expected to be a nexus of exchange between potential employers and the unemployed, adding that the solution to unemployment in the state goes through an inclusive process.

“The centre is expected to bring out the unemployed youths and it will be staffed with guidance and counselling officers and we will also encourage the use of online networking because technology is very important especially for those that cannot make their way to the centre.” A director in the ministry, Mrs. Iyabo Bello, said the counsellor at the multimedia centre will take the youths through career talks to enable them determine where their passion lies, as well as guide them to go for technical or vocational skills training. She said the graduates will be counselled into going into entrepreneurship.

“Those who are seeking employment will be taking through employability skills. In the long run, we will have many Lagosians getting something doing in terms of getting paid or being self-employed. We are going to have less social vices; the standard of living of the people will improve the IGR of the state in terms of creation of wealth and employment. They will be earning money and be able to pay tax, we will also have skilled workforce and generate foreign exchange because we will be talking to the entrepreneurs to be producing what will be exported.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Service City, an online e-commerce platform, Mr. Femi Ogunseinde, said his organisation plans to bring artisans in touch with people and organisations who are looking for high quality service.

“We are in the business of changing and transforming lives, one of those things we are trying to achieve is to empower people with knowledge with tools and processes and allow them to deliver service to comparable standards with their peers in Europe. We intend to do this by leveraging on technology to manage the engagement process of how this people find work, the execution process and the tools they will use to work, as well as the supplies that we will use to do the work.”

He said the jobless youths must have the qualifications that will make them to know what it takes to deliver quality service that people will be willing to pay for, adding that they have to know how to position themselves. “Through the platform, you are guaranteed payment for every service you deliver.”

The Executive Secretary, Ojo Local Government Area, Mr. Sikiru Lawal, appealed to youths and residents to guard jealously the infrastructure provided by the government so that more can come to the community.

In another development, the ministry presented its scorecard of achievement in the last one year, just as Durosimi-Etti said it would continue to partner organisations that have shared values to harness opportunities that will enable creativity and innovativeness among youths.

“A lot of unemployed youths need counselling, Ford Foundation has indicated interest to have a monthly interactive session with the youths so that they can harness opportunity in a conducive environment and will also enable them to be more creative.”