New entrepreneurship curriculum to help Nigeria industrialize
A new United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) project will develop an entrepreneurship curriculum for senior secondary schools in Nigeria.
The project, costing US$3m, part of which will be funded by the Government of Japan, will be implemented in the course of the next five years and will focus on supporting the education process in a total of nine states, namely: Anambra State, Bauchi State, Benue State, Cross River State, Delta State, Katsina State, Ogun State, Ondo State, and Oyo State.
The project was launched in the Nigerian capital by the Federal Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, with presence of the Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, Sadanobu Kusaoke.
The Federal Government of Nigeria’s national development plan called “Vision 20:2020” aims to catapult the country into the league of the top 20 industrialized nations by the year 2020.
“To achieve this goal we need to make sure that young people in Nigeria have the chance to become productive members of society. A new education curriculum focusing on developing entrepreneurship knowledge, skills and attitudes that will benefit industries and also serve as a reliable and efficient vehicle for the attainment of the vision,” said Ismail Junaidu, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC).
Nigeria has an estimated population of around 186 million people. The country’s overall unemployment rate is of 24 per cent, of which over 60 per cent are youth.
Each year, around four million young men and women enter the workforce, with only a small fraction able to find formal employment. A project that prepares young people to create their own employment is therefore a welcome development.
The UNIDO project will support the development of entrepreneurship content and infuse it into the curricula of 34 trade subjects. It will also develop teachers’ guides, as well as monitoring and evaluation tools.
Further, the project will help build the capacity of involved staff of the NERDC to sustainably support and develop entrepreneurship education in Nigeria’s formal education system.
