There is no country on the face of the earth whose citizens do not desire an economic emancipation and an opportunity to live their dreams. Many Nigerians have not been able to enjoy this, because they are burdened by poverty, ignorance and disease. No society can surely be flourishing and happy when a greater part of the members are poor and miserable. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa is undoubtedly one of the richest nation on earth, in terms of potentials. Yet Nigeria remains at the bottom of the ladder in term of socio-economic development among the developing nations. Partnership and Co-operation between the private sector, developmental agencies and Non Governmental Organizations dedicated and committed to capacity building, youth empowerment programmes like the Eko Greater Tomorrow Foundation (EGTF) will make the difference by creating self-employment possibilities that will accelerate the reduction of poverty and increase national productivity.
We acknowledge that there is a limit to the number of unemployed Nigerians the government can readily absorb into Public service but the government can put in place macro economic policies conducive for private sector to generate employment and reduce poverty in the society.
It is estimated that only about 15 percent of the 120,000 graduates of our Universities and Polytechnics find jobs in the formal sector each year. This situation has given rise to a three dimensional social problem of unemployment; under- employment; and poverty. This situation has influenced the EGTF intervention in the last four years. The solution lies in capacity building, youth empowerment & self- employment of the people. No single measure would do more to reduce threat to life and reduce poverty in the society like ours.
Most of the products of the school system are ill equipped for the labour market and this foundation provides an intervention approach to solve this problem. We need a re-orientation of graduates of vocational, technical and tertiary institutions towards self-employment and enterpreurship. This is the message of the EGTF Empowerment Partnership Initiative (EPI).