It is no news that unemployment is a major problem in Nigeria. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistic (NBS), unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2024 stood at 5.3% with a marginal one percent improvement to 4.3% in the second quarter.
Over the years, there have been series of interventions by various government agencies and non-governmental organizations to stem the tide of unemployment in the country. From the introduction of entrepreneurial studies in schools to various skills acquisition programmes designed to transform applicants to self-employed persons and eventually employer of labour, most of the interventions appeared like a drop of water in a vast desert.
Prior to its transformation into a limited liability company under the PIA 2021, NNPC, as a responsible corporate citizen had been involved a series of entrepreneurial/empowerment programmes through its various subsidiaries in the form of host-community CSR programmes. With the transformation into a limited liability company and the establishment of the NNPC Foundation, a subsidiary dedicated to carrying out the company’s social responsibility programmes in a more focused manner, the intervention in entrepreneurial/empowerment programme was retooled to address the root of the unemployment challenge, especially at the graduate level.
This gave birth to the NYSC Empowerment Programme which is designed to upscale NNPC Ltd.’s intervention to the national level while at the same time addressing the factor of financial illiteracy which had been identified as the reason for the low level of success in the various interventions.
The wisdom in incorporating financial literacy into the youth empowerment programme by the NNPC Foundation lies in the fact that one requires a dose of it to be able to establish and successfully run a business. The absence of financial literacy is believed to be the reason most of those trained and empowered with skills over the years in the various empowerment programmes often fail to establish and grow successful businesses thereby defeating the objectives of the programmes.
With the partnership with NYSC, NNPC Foundation has created a training/empowerment module targeted at young graduates mobilised for the compulsory national youth service. Across the 37 NYSC Orientation Camps in the country, interested corps members sign up for the module and are equipped with financial literacy skills to enable them manage and invest their money effectively and function as entrepreneurs.
In 2024, a total of 560,065 NYSC members benefitted from the programme. Speaking on the objective of the programme, the Managing Director of NNPC Foundation, Mrs. Emmanuella Arukwe, said: “By educating corps members on financial management and entrepreneurship, the program aims to empower them to become economically self-sufficient and to contribute positively to society.”
But the NNPC Foundation’s NYSC Empowerment Programme goes beyond just equipping corps members with financial literacy skills. Incorporated within the programme is Business Pitching Exercise. This is targeted at those corps members who exhibit keener interest and higher aptitude in pursuing establishing their own businesses and pursuing an entrepreneurial path.
Under this programme, interested corps members are further trained to hone their skills in developing business ideas into a business plan which they would pitch before a selected panel of assessors to determine winners based on market relevance, competitive edge and innovation, scalability, potential impact on the community. “During the pitching exercise, projects that standout will receive startup packs, business advisory services, and opportunities to scale their ventures,” Mrs Arukwe explained.
In 2024, a total of 2,659 corps members across the country participated in the NNPC Foundation Pitching Exercise.
The foundation also facilitated a 50% reduction in the registration fees for some of the corps members to register their businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) thereby starting them off on their entrepreneurial journey.
The efforts of the Foundation in providing humanitarian services across the country and driving youth empowerment have attracted accolades from the Institute for Humanitarian Studies and Social Development (IHSD) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), culminating in the Award for Humanitarian Excellence in Service.
