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The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States African Development Fund to support 15,000 youths in Lagos State within five years.
The LSETF said in a statement that the move was in line with its mandate to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for Lagos residents.
It said through the MoU, both parties would provide an equal sum of $2m every year for five years ($10m in total) to provide skill development and internship opportunities to 3,000 youth between the ages of 18 to 35, yearly, adding that women would represent at least 50 percent of the beneficiaries.
The signing ceremony took place in Washington DC, the United States of America on Tuesday in the presence of executives of both agencies, members of the US Congress, partners and the international media.
The Chairman, LSETF’s Board of Trustees, Mrs. Ifueko Okauru, expressed her optimism on the impact of the partnership.
She said, “This USADF-LSETF collaboration will enable the expansion of world-class vocational training centres available in the state, the development of 15,000 skilled youth for employment into targeted sectors, the provision of internship cost subsidies to employers and the tracking of real-time placement of unemployed youth into jobs.”
The acting Executive Secretary, LSETF, Mrs Teju Abisoye, said with the recent Labour Force Report by the National Bureau of Statistics, which showed a 6.7 percent drop in unemployment rate as Lagos State provided the largest number of 740,146 jobs in the third quarter of 2018, it was obvious that the deliberate employment intervention policies of the Lagos State Government were finally impacting on job creation.
She said she was pleased to have the USADF join LSETF to create more jobs for youths while sustainably decreasing the alarming unemployment rate.
The President/Chief Executive Officer, USADF, Mr CD Glin, stated that the foundation was proud to be in partnership with the LSETF as its programmes had been independently verified to be making an impact in the lives of young Nigerians.
“This USADF-LSETF partnership further expands our existing commitment to investing in high-impact initiatives that are hinged on generating income, providing financial solutions and causing a change in the African economy,” Glin stated.
