The effectiveness of Igbo Apprenticeship Model in Nigeria: How Can these Master-Servant Intersection Improve Youth Employment in Nigeria’s Informal Sector.

Jude Chidiebere Anago

University of Nigeria, Department of Banking and Finance, Enugu Campus

Abstract: In the face of extreme poverty, amplified by massive youth unemployment in Nigeria, this study theorises that collaboration between the government and private sectors to mobilise resources to restructure the Igbo apprenticeship model is a panacea to rising youth unemployment in Nigeria. Against this backdrop, this study examines the factors militating Nigeria’s Igbo apprenticeship model decline through the qualitative methodology. Results show that the apprenticeship duration, lack of education integration and provision of seed capital upon graduation from the apprenticeship training are the top three challenges triggering failure. Recommendation stressed that the Igbo apprenticeship model solely practised by the informal private sectors of Igbo origin could drop the unemployment rate in Nigeria if the government reformed the process by introducing grants or seed capital and education for the apprentice. There is optimism that both would achieve more together than the current practice where the practitioners are left practising the old-fashioned model.

Keyword: Igbo Apprenticeship model, Entrepreneurship, Job Creation, Poverty Drop, Nigeria