YouWin has created 27,000 direct jobs – Jonathan

The Federal Government's Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YouWIN) Programme has achieved giant strides in the past years of its existence as it created over 27,000 jobs, President Goodluck Jonathan said on Monday.

He said however that the initial target of the programme was the creation of 80,00 jbs.

Jonathan spoke at opening ceremony of the  third edition of the YouWIN  Programme at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

He said Nigeria is one of the countries that have a very high percentage of vibrant and enterprising young people.

he said that the Programme initially targeted the creation of over 80,000 jobs.

He said: 'When we came into office in 2011, the total numbers of unemployment in the country stood at 35% and we considered that as unacceptable and in response, we launched a number of initiatives which included the YouWiN to provide jobs for our citizens.

“The YouWiN Programme is unique in the sense that it depends on Nigerian youths to create jobs for other Nigerian youths. The Programme supports enterprising young men and women to establish their own businesses that will enable them employ others.

“I am happy to report that so far, over 27,000 direct jobs have been created across our six geo political zones. This includes 22,000 from the YouWiN phase 1 and over 5000 from YouWiN phase 2. Let me restate that I believe strong in the youth of this great country, they are not only vibrant, they are intelligent and hard working.”

Jonathan, who inspected the various products at the exhibition stands, was happy with quality of products on display.

According him, their quality can compete favourably with similar products from anywhere in the world.

This, he said, was a pointer to the fact that Nigeria is gradually turning tcreating a strong middle class.

“They are quite encouraging and confirm that Nigeria has great youth from interior decoration, through to chemical engineering, ICT and electrical engineering. We are all fascinated and we believe that Nigerian youths are taking this country to a great height,' he said.

He added, “The products and services on display here can compete with the best in the world, will not only support our domestic needs but they are also potentially export revenue drive for this country.”

The President also said that the beneficiaries had testified that they received the awards without knowing anybody, stressing that the project will continue to maintain its objective approach to selecting beneficiaries without any room for God-fatherism in the project.

According to him, the third edition of the programme will further provide direct jobs for another 3600 young Nigerian entrepreneurs and tens of thousands indirect jobs.

He also appealed to multi-national conglomerates operating in Nigeria and banks to assist government in providing the much needed funds for the enterprising youths.

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio told journalists at the end of the programme that 'it is not just a major success, we are transforming Nigeria from a situation of god-fatherism to a situation where Nigeria becomes the god-father of all its children.

'And I am very happy that the President is showing the way. He has brought out an innovation, You Win is an innovation on its own. The mere fact that you apply and you get enlisted and become successful without knowing anybody is a major innovation.

'And I think it is high time that Nigerians get away from the idea that it is only when you have a god-father or you know somebody that's when the federal government or the government can come to your assistance. I think that is what this programme is changing.'