In line with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, aimed at building capacity for young and upcoming entrepreneurs and stimulating young adult development, Diamond Bank has prescribed enhanced business education as a major recipe for fighting the scourge of unemployment, noting that it will boost the outcome of vocational skills in Nigeria.
Speaking at the recent Employee Volunteering Programme (EVP) which held at the Millennium School Compound, Egbeda, a Lagos suburb, the Bank’s Head of Corporate Communications, Ayona Trimnell, stated that one of the surest ways to escape the pains of unemployment is for the Nigeria youth to be fortified with the necessary business education that will enable his or her vocational skill(s) find gainful expression in the production chain of the economy.
“The youth population of Nigeria is over 60 per cent of the entire population, if this active population is empowered with business education and vocational skills, the economy will grow exponentially. There are many countries thriving on vocational skills and we should embrace business education as a way to fine-tune the finished products from our vocational schools,” Trimnell stated.
Reechoing Trimnell, Head of Human Capital Management, Chidinma Lawanson, noted that since only a small fraction of the population get white collar jobs, there is need for the youths to be creative and adventurous. She charged the youths to create jobs for themselves and others by growing their skills into conglomerates.
According to her, “many companies started by offering skill-based services gained from vocational education, which eventually grew to become big and major employers of labour. Skilled people are pivotal to the growth of any economy, therefore people with such competencies should confidently put their skills to productive use to generate income for themselves and others.”
The Employee Volunteering Programme is an annual volunteer programme through which Diamond Bank staff provide financial literacy and entrepreneurial training to students of various skills acquisition centres across Lagos State.
The programme is in its second year and will see employees of the Bank visiting four vocational training centres located in Ojodu, Ibeju Lekki, Egbeda and Oshodi areas of Lagos.
