This paper was undertaken to establish the interplay between youth unemployment and resultant negative socio-economic realities in Nigeria as evident in Akwa Ibom State. Nigeria’s population and that of Akwa Ibom State is currently (July, 2022) estimated at about 206 and 7 million respectively with a progressive average growth rate of 3.5 percent per annum. Out of this number, while more than 35 percent at the national level, over 52 percent of the youth in Akwa Ibom State are unemployed. This situation, as the paper observed, is occasioned by crucial factors ranging from the poor state of the economy and educational standard, poor attitude to agriculture, poor enabling and secured environment, scarcity of data on informal employment and entrepreneurship, poor economic growth rate and wrong impression about technical and vocational education. Furthermore, the paper noted that the prevailing unemployment among youth in Akwa Ibom State has engendered high rate of social vices such as prostitution, armed robbery, oil bunkering, internet fraud, drug trafficking and addiction, rape, kidnapping, political thuggery, assassination and other acts of criminalities. For the way forward, the paper proffered, among others, that the Akwa Ibom State government should redesigned the education sector to become technology-based in order to enhance skill acquisition for self-employment as well as encourage the youth to embrace agriculture as a profitable business venture. Moreover, honest effort should be made towards revitalizing the moribund and ailing industries in the state.
Victor E. Ita and John E. Bassey (2022) Rising Youth Unemployment and The Socio-Economic Realities in Nigeria: The Akwa Ibom State Experience, International Journal of Development and Economic Sustainability, Vol.10, No.4, pp.1-14
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Self-employment, Unemployment, Youth, economic growth, social vices
