Enactus Nigeria launches engineering Olympiad to tackle youth unemployment
Enactus Nigeria has announced the launch of the Nigerian Engineering Olympiad, a programme designed to inspire innovation among undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students across the country. Speaking at a news conference in Abuja yesterday, the Country Director of Enactus Nigeria, Michael Ajayi, said the initiative was part of the organisation’s broader mission to empower undergraduates […]
Enactus Nigeria has announced the launch of the Nigerian Engineering Olympiad, a programme designed to inspire innovation among undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students across the country.
Speaking at a news conference in Abuja yesterday, the Country Director of Enactus Nigeria, Michael Ajayi, said the initiative was part of the organisation’s broader mission to empower undergraduates with technical and entrepreneurial skills beyond their academic degrees.
Ajayi noted that Nigeria’s population, estimated between 200 and 250 million, is dominated by young people.
“About 70% of this population are young people, right? And if you look around our society today, we know that the unemployment rate is not just double digits but exceeding 30%. And so the question now is, how do we leverage the strength, the innovation and the drive and passion of young people in Nigeria to support the development of Nigeria?” he rhetorically asked.
He explained that the Olympiad would provide a platform for students to develop engineering solutions to real‑life problems. “The Nigerian Engineering Olympiad provides us the opportunity to inspire young Nigerians, whether as final year undergraduates or as postgraduate engineering students, to develop innovative solutions that are driven by engineering principles, solutions that address real‑life problems, whether everyday problems or industry problems,” Ajayi said.
According to him, the programme will not only encourage innovation but also create opportunities for entrepreneurship and job creation. “By doing that, we’re enhancing national growth, we’re pulling down the inflation rates and supporting the economic growth of the nation,” he added.
Ajayi disclosed that Enactus Nigeria had partnered with the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSEMI, and other government agencies to provide technical mentorship and resources.
“One of the elements of the programme is the technical mentorship that will be provided by professionals in business development, professionals in engineering that will literally hold the hands of the participants along that journey and ensure that they have the necessary support, technical support, financial support, business development support that they need to succeed,” he said.
Also speaking, Yetunde Taimo, General Manager, Integrated Gas Development at First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company (First E & D), said the company was proud to support the Olympiad.
“Our core value really is around fostering talent, it’s around innovation, it’s around entrepreneurship. And all these three things we see that the Olympiad is actually going to promote, especially in the young engineers in the universities today,” she said.
Taimo added that the initiative would help reduce brain drain by creating sustainable opportunities for graduates.
“If the industry has seen a solution in some of the ideas that have come out of these young minds, it already opens up employment for them to actually come into the industry. So I think it’s going to reduce the brain drain that we see currently,” she said.