Socio-economic constraints affecting youths involvement in national economic development

Abstract

Youths occupy a strategic position in any country's developmental process. Their productive capacity and income generating activities contribute to the economic development of any nation. Ironically, youths in Nigeria are ill-equipped to obtain gainful employment. The youths are mostly noted for their involvement in many types of crimes because of their vulnerability. Today youths are not fully integrated and mobilized for economic development due to the following constraints; lack of a functional and job oriented education, negative effects of some government policies which have made many youths unemployed, incidence of ghost workers in the civil service which increase wage bill and block employment of young people, corruption and mismanagement of public funds by those in authority which has caused dislocation in the socio-economic development of the nation. The paper suggests ways of empowering the youths for economic development to include dispensing the type of education that is attuned to the needs of the labour market, involving youths in decision making processes especially on programmes that are meant for their well-being so as to avoid the underemployment of youths, reviving agriculture and the manufacturing sector in order to diversify the economy and tackling corruption.

Keywords: youth, economic empowerment

Journal of Technology and Education in Nigeria Vol. 9(1) 2004: 38-46