CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Nigeria‟s population is said to have reached about 167 million people in 2012

(National Bureau of Statistics, 2012). The National Population Commission (NPC,

2013) states that about half of the population is made up of youth, defined as individuals

between 15 and 34 years of age. Unfortunately, as the youth population grows, so does

the unemployment rate. In fact, unemployed youth numbered about 11.1 million in

2012. According to Doreo partners (2013) unemployment rate in Nigeria is growing at

the rate of 16% per year with the youth impacted the most and accounting for three

times the general unemployment.

Nigeria has an average unemployment rate of 23.9% between 2006 to2015;

specifically, Kaduna state has an unemployment rate of 25.7% well above the national

average and has the second highest incidence of poverty in the North western zone with

52.4% as core poor and 38.2% as moderately poor (African outlook online).A world

Bank study in 2009 revealed that Kaduna state ranks among the top six cities in Nigeria

with the highest unemployment rate.

The origin of unemployment in Nigeria can be traced back to the oil boom era of

1970s. During the period, Nigerian government and individuals abandoned agriculture

which was the mainstay of the economy. This led to rural urban migration as people

attempted to reap from the windfall from oil. Production of agricultural commodities for

export declined. Since then unemployment set in and Nigerian government started

working tirelessly to achieve youth independence and improve economic status through

several reforms and/or programs.

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One of the recent programs is the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program

(SURE-P) which was established by the Federal Government on January 2012. It was

established in order to encourage wealth creation and provide much needed palliatives

in the area that would bring visible and immediate impact on the teeming populace. It is

more or less a whole range of activities and programmatic scheme. The implementation

of the program atthe state level (Kaduna State) was preceded by the formation of a

committee to identify programs, project and activities to be untaken. The committee

identified six different sectors to intervene namely education, health, infrastructure,

agriculture, youth empowerment and security. For the purpose of this study the

researcher focuses on infrastructure, agriculture and youth empowerments because it is

in these sectors that youth were provided with employment opportunity.

In the infrastructural sector intervention was made in order to reduce unemployment

rate by taking youth off the streets.Government purchased and distributed vehicles and

tricycles worthN763,411,422.00. Vehicle like brand new Nissan, Tata luxuries buses,

haice mini buses were distributed. About 775 beneficiaries at 5% subsidy were given

vehicles and payment to be done in 12 and 24 mouths.(State house,2012).

In the agricultural youth and woman empowerment scheme Kaduna state trained 7600

youths in 50 different businesses. They were given starter packs and take off grant of N

10,000 (State house, 2012). Under agriculture, 2,300 youth were empowered in the

following area bee keeping, cassava production, cattle fattening, fishery, ginger

production, rice production, maize production, poultry, piggery, sheep/goat, honey

processing, animal husbandry, vegetable processing and sugar cane production.

Moreover, in the agricultural sector the bank of agricultural was given