‘Tackle unemployment with apprenticeship’-Okonkwo

Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, yesterday called on the federal and state governments to adopt the Igbo apprenticeship system to address the scourge of youth unemployment in the country.  Okonkwo who delivered a keynote address at the 2022 edition of the All Markets’ Conference, organised by the Ndigboamaka Progressive Traders Association in […]

Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, yesterday called on the federal and state governments to adopt the Igbo apprenticeship system to address the scourge of youth unemployment in the country.

 Okonkwo who delivered a keynote address at the 2022 edition of the All Markets’ Conference, organised by the Ndigboamaka Progressive Traders Association in Lagos, said the Igbo apprenticeship scheme has the capacity to mop up the army of unemployed youths and engage them meaningfully.

 This is just as he called on the traders and tradesmen to open new avenues of partnership with governments in order to address the constraints to doing business especially in getting their containers quickly out of the ports, saying, “The number of days it takes to clear your goods from the port is too long but you need to lobby to achieve your goals.”

 Okonkwo said the governments should enter into agreements with traders and other tradesmen to provide tutelage to youths and reduce unemployment.

 According to him, the scheme, which had proven to be a success among the Igbo people and had helped them to create wealth, can be replicated across the country with the government providing the needed guarantees for start-up funds.

 “What it takes is a policy on the placement of willing youths in businesses that will take them through tutelage for a period of time while the government empowers them with start-up funds upon completion”, he said.

  Okonkwo, who in 2020 instituted a research at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Business School into how to revitalise the Igbo apprenticeship scheme and reposition it to become the new model in tackling unemployment, said the report of the study, which was publicly presented in October 2021, should form part of working and policy document of government on addressing unemployment in the country.