In a bid to harness the potential of young people in Osun State, stakeholders have called for the empowerment and development of youth in the State.
The stakeholders made this call at the Osun Youth summit, held on Thursday which brought together experts and stakeholders who emphasized the need for government support, access to finance capital, and an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
The Commissioner for Youth Affairs, Hon Olagunju Moshood commended the organizers and reiterated the state government’s commitment to ensuring youth development across the state.
Babatunde Afolabi, the Chief Medical Director of UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital, commended the organizers, saying “I want to sincerely appreciate the organiser of this programme, One for All Youth Development Initiative for putting this programme together.”
He also emphasized the need for government support, stating “So I want government to look in direction of more empowerment, identify the strength of our youth and we work together to ensure that we make the best out of them.”
The convener of the programme, Babawale Jamiu Popoola, team leader of One for Youth Development Initiative, highlighted the importance of the summit, stating “It is important to note that the Osogbo Youth Summit is a youth led, youth driven and youth focused initiative that is being set up to empower Osogbo youth, amplify their voices and of course influence access to youth focused opportunities while ensuring that youth drive to show economic development of our dear states.”
However, he added that at the end of the programme, a communique will be signed by the stakeholders to ensure that there are youth empowerment and development across the State.
Opeyemi Oladimeji, one of the board members of One for All Initiative, advised the youths in the State to be ambassadors of good behaviours that shun youthful exuberance. He also added that the youths should educate themselves with knowledge needed to thrive in matters of life.
One of the stakeholders who spoke with our correspondent, Lamina Kamiludeen, the Executive Director of World Institute of Peace emphasized the need for government to prioritize employment.
He said, “I advise the government to take a look at the unemployment rate first. And provide means of employment while also making sure that the highest number that will get chance should be the youth.”
He also called on the government to support youths who are interested in entrepreneurship. “The government should also look at that it is not every youth that want to have a white collar job. We have youth that have passion to have their own business. So in this, the government should also take note that empowering youth who have interest in self reliance should also be part of their primary assignment.”
An Entrepreneur, Mutiat Abidemi also stressed the importance of access to finance capital while adding that government should also review the taxes being allocated to business owners across the State and they should provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
Semi Abidemi, The team lead at SEED Africa, emphasized the need for government support, saying “So I want to believe that a lot of the community, the government, individuals can do a lot to empower young people as well as NGOs that have special focus on youth.”
He also called on the government to implement policies that support youth development, he said “Government should begin at policies that they already have that can empower young people so that they can pick all useful aspects of it for the 21st century, for the empowerment of youths, women and also persons with disabilities “.
