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Nigeria needs to create 25 million jobs within the next ten years if it wants to tackle poverty and unemployment, according to a report presented yesterday in Abuja.

The five-chapter report was an independent project by Next Generation Nigeria, a youth group exploring how the nation could benefit from its young people. It was compiled in collaboration with the British Council and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Presenting the report, Frank Nweke, director general of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, who worked on the project, said a shortage of jobs is a serious challenge.

“Without remedial action, the crisis in the job market will worsen rapidly as growing numbers of young Nigerians enter the workforce,” he said.

Mr. Nweke said the country cannot generate new jobs unless it diversifies its economy. He called for a reduction in the overdependence on oil and more investments in agriculture, information and communications technology, textile, and leather.

“The oil industry contributes 40 percent to the national GDP [Gross Domestic Product],” he said. “But it is highly capital-intensive and employs only a tiny fraction of the population.”

More investment

Nigeria needs to spend up to 4 percent more of its GDP on the infrastructure that will underpin a world class economy, said Mr. Nweke.

Poor power generation, in particular, has forced a lot of industries to close down in the last few decades.

“Unless we address those things that made them shut down, the kind of employment needed to take the youth off the streets, make them more productive, and prepare the country to be the largest economy, cannot be generated,” he said.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director, World Bank, and chairperson of the Next Generation Nigeria, said at the event that Nigeria must tap into the energies of the young. If this demographic are managed well, Nigeria can take off in the manner that countries like South Korea were able to do in the 1980s and 1990s.

“However, this demographic dividend will not come up automatically,” she said.

“Immediate policy actions need to be taken to seize the window of opportunity. We need to invest in the health and education of our young people,” she said.