The Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, has advocated the inclusion of business studies in the curricula of tertiary institutions so as to address graduate unemployment in Nigeria.
Uduaghan, who spoke at the maiden convocation of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro , stressed that the curriculums of tertiary institutions should be tailored towards producing graduates that would be self-employed.
He said graduate unemployment posed a big challenge that the government at the various levels cannot solve. He therefore urged that governments should fashion out programmes and policies aimed at producing graduates that would be self-reliant.
In Delta State, he said the “Delta beyond Oil” project “is geared towards how we can engage some of these youths as they come out, in this development programme.”
“We believe in self-employment. The challenge is how do we get you to become self-employed? There is the challenge of educating you not just in your specialty, but also how to manage the business and of course there is also the area of funding if you have to be self-employed,” he added.
He noted that self-employment programmes and initiatives were incomplete without sound knowledge of business management skills.
Meanwhile, the governor praised the rector of the institution Dr Jacob Oboreh, for deploying the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the school to develop about 30 infrastructural projects within two years.
Uduaghan said the feat achieved by Oboreh has reaffirmed his belief that management of higher institutions should be allowed to manage their IGR without remittance to the state government.
Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Hope Eghagha, called on institutions of higher learning in the state to key into the Delta beyond Oil programme to produce graduates that would be self- reliant.
Eghagaha praised lecturers of the polytechnic for not joining the strike by their counterparts across the country.
