Nigeria’s growing structural unemployment crisis can be significantly reduced if the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is strategically aligned with sectors facing manpower shortages, the Convener of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Ideological Group, Bamidele Atoyebi, has said.

Atoyebi argued that Nigeria’s challenge is no longer simply the absence of jobs, but a widening disconnect between the skills possessed by graduates and the competencies demanded by employers.

Using the recent controversy surrounding comments by Moniepoint CEO, Tosin Eniolorunda, Atoyebi noted that hundreds of vacancies remain unfilled because qualified candidates are scarce.

“Structural unemployment has become a significant challenge in Nigeria, creating a widening gap between available jobs and the local talent pool,” Atoyebi wrote.

He added, “We have a mismatch of skills, not just a lack of positions.”

The policy advocate referenced concerns repeatedly raised by industrialists including Aliko Dangote over the difficulty of finding adequately trained Nigerian workers despite the country’s large youth population.

While acknowledging complaints by many young Nigerians that employers demand “international standards for meager pay,” Atoyebi maintained that the country’s education system also bears responsibility for producing graduates who are often disconnected from industry realities.

“Our education system is standing on spaghetti legs,” he stated, criticising the widespread practice where students who fail to meet admission requirements for their preferred courses are automatically transferred into unrelated disciplines.

He argued that such a system kills passion and professional alignment from the onset.

“Their aim will be to just get the certificate and go, ‘make I just get the pali,’” he said.

Atoyebi stressed that Nigeria must move away from a generic degree culture toward what he described as “strategic, demand-driven education,” where academic training directly corresponds with labour market needs.

He proposed that NELFUND should evolve beyond a general student loan intervention into a targeted national workforce development tool.

“The Nigerian Education Loan Fund should be more than a general loan scheme; it can be utilized as a strategic tool to fund students in sectors where Nigeria faces a critical shortage such as Engineering and Medicine,” he wrote.

Atoyebi explained that such a model would help Nigeria counter the growing “Japa” wave draining professionals from critical sectors.

Under the proposed framework, students trained in priority areas would receive government-backed sponsorships, stipends, accommodation support and guaranteed employment opportunities upon graduation.

“To boost morale, students under this initiative could receive stipends and accommodation, while high-performing graduates with first class degree could even be eligible for loan waivers, effectively turning their debt into a reward for national service,” he added.

Drawing an analogy between education and economic planning, Atoyebi warned that training students without considering actual market demand is equivalent to “preparing people for roads that do not exist.”

He called on government agencies to establish stronger partnerships with private sector organisations in order to obtain real-time labour market data and shape academic curricula around industry needs.

“To avoid training people for non-existent roles, the government must consult with private organizations to gather real-time data on labour market demands,” he stated.

He argued that aligning education with employer expectations would reduce the country’s dependence on expatriate labour while strengthening indigenous expertise across sectors.

Atoyebi also emphasised that beyond technical qualifications, Nigeria requires competent professionals who possess both skill and passion for their occupations.

“This mismatch is evident even in our security sectors, where personnel often lack passion or professional alignment with their roles, simply taking the job as a last resort because there was no other option,” he wrote.

The Tinubu ally further urged Nigerian youths to understand that employability is tied to value creation and expertise.

“Nigerian youth must also recognize that employment is a value exchange; companies hire based on the specific value and expertise an employee brings to the table,” he said.

He concluded that Nigeria can transform structural unemployment into a major growth driver if education policies, government funding, and labour market realities are deliberately synchronised.

“By bridging the gap between education and industry requirements, Nigeria can transform its structural unemployment from a crisis into a robust engine for growth,” Atoyebi declared.