Over 67 million Nigerian youths are unemployed and the scenario opens the country to a major crisis if not quickly addressed.

The Director-General, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, who made the disclosure on Wednesday, said the higher the number of unemployed youths, the more likely a crisis could be stirred.

Mallam Mohammed, represented by the NDE Director of Small Scale Enterprises, Mr Kunle Obayan, was speaking at the graduation and resettlement of beneficiaries of Solar Energy Training Scheme, in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

While emphasising the urgent need to take youths off the streets and put them to work, he said this was one of the ways through which the desired peace and economic development in the country could be achieved.

Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics, he said the figure was what was obtainable as of 2011, adding that unemployment and poverty, especially among the youth, had remained one of the fundamental challenges threatening the economic development of Nigeria.

He said: "According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria has a population of over 67 million unemployed youths as of 2011. This is out of a population of about 167 million persons.

"The higher the number of unemployed youths in the country, the more likely a crisis can be stirred. It is, therefore, imperative that these youths be put to work and taken off the streets so as to achieve peace and economic development."

Mallam Mohammed pointed out that the resettlement of the graduates of the scheme marked another milestone in the fight against unemployment and poverty among youths.

He said the NDE, over the years, had been involved in environmental scanning to discover ways of mitigating unemployment, stating that one of such is the training in renewable energy, specifically the solar energy system.

This, according to him, is borne out of the realisation of the energy crisis confronting the nation.