13th September, 2013
JETHRO IBILEKE/Benin
Reports have shown that the Graduate Internship of Nigeria’s Federal Government’s Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme appears to be a massive failure in Edo state.
Out of 2,623 graduates that registered in the state only 31 were matched to firms and four were hired as staff. Besides, only 10 firms out of the 34 organisations registered for the GIS in the state met its requirement for participation in the scheme.
Mr. Peter Papka, Project Director of the Graduate Internship Scheme, made this disclosure in Benin City, Thursday, at a sensitization session with some organisations in the state.
Papka who was represented by GIS Head of Operations, Akubo Adegbe,
called on the firms to participate in the programme and help take unemployed graduates off the streets.
According to him, only 35 per cent of over 2,000 firms that registered for the scheme nationwide were eligible.
Mr. Papka while urging firms to show interest in the programme, explained that the federal government would be responsible for the payment of monthly stipend to the graduates during the one year internship.
“If we work together, we will all contribute to addressing graduate youth unemployment in this state.
“There is the urgent need for more firms to participate in this program and take graduates out of the labour market. This session is a call to action. The challenge is getting enough firms for a large proportion of the registered graduates,” he said.