The Kwara State Coordinator, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Mrs. Zainab Abdulmalik and the Coordinaor, Millennium Development Initiatives, Mr. Azubuike Emmanuel, have said that graduate unemployment can be curbed through skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development.

They spoke during the second graduation of Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development on Agro-Allied scheme for Batch 'C' of the 2012 corps members in Ilorin on Tuesday.

The programme was organised by SMEDAN, MDI and the National Youth Service Corps.

Abdulmalik stated that the government was addressing graduate unemployment by ensuring that entrepreneurship training and skill development were part of the curricula in institutions of learning.

She added that such training would make it possible for undergraduates to possess skills so that after graduation, they could develop themselves and become self-reliant.

She said the corps members were always exposed to crop production, fishery, piggery as well as the rudiments of management of SMEs.

According to her, there are many funding windows provided by the government to assist corps members/graduates with skills and those that want to develop SMEs.

"Many of the graduates do not have skills; that accounts for why they may not be self-reliant or be employed. We believe that by training these corps members in some skills, they will be able to have something that they can fall back on at the end of their service year. "There are so many agric-based funds that are available through the Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Agriculture and even First Bank of Nigeria, to corps members, who have some projects. They give them some soft loans, about N500,000.

"There are funds from the government for people who have skills and need such soft loans to fund their projects," Abdulmalik said.

Azubuike advised graduates to acquire skills, adding that they should not depend on paid employment.

He stated that the development of SMEs, agriculture and skill acquisition would equip graduates to become self-reliant and even creators of jobs.