Passionate about the Internet, young university students Opeyemi Awoyemi, Olalekan Olude and Ayodeji Adewunmi created Nigeria’s number one jobs website Jobberman from the Obafemi Awolowo University campus in August 2009. The high rate of unemployment in Nigeria was unacceptable to them so they decided to “take over the Jobs World” and do something about it.
More recently, U.S. multinational technology company Microsoft partnered with Jobberman in order to address the youth unemployment issues that growing economy Nigeria is still facing. By developing an employability platform, Microsoft wants to help stimulate Nigeria’s job market.
Microsoft was drawn to this partnership as part of their Youth Works Initiative across the Middle East and Africa. As youth is an important segment of the world population, one third of Nigeria’s 170 million inhabitants is between the age of 15 and 24 and 80% of them are unemployed.
“We have the opportunity to tap into the 1.5 million unique users of Jobberman and their job vacancy content”, said national technology officer for Microsoft Nigeria Olayinka Oni said on CNBC Africa.
According to Olayinka Oni, this contribution will ensure that the Nigerian youth is more job ready and tap into their innovation and creativity. The current education gap prevents young people from getting jobs as their degrees do not necessarily provide them the job skills that employers are looking for today.
Together, Microsoft Nigeria and Jobberman want to create platforms to promote employment opportunities, career guidance, employability skills, and enterprise development for young people through collaborative efforts and contributions to bridge the opportunity divide for local youths through the use of technology.
Author: Chloé Delolme
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