66 | Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Challenges and Development… Chapter 5 YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT Sarah O. Anyanwu and Dr. Innocent U. Duru I. Introduction One of the most critical problems of development confronting the continent of Africa and Nigeria, in particular, is youth unemployment. In the contention of Olukayode (2017: 63), despite preventing some of the economies from attaining economic significance and aspirations of development, it had positioned them as countries without a job-growth economy. The up-surge of youth unemployment had turned out to be an all reaching concern in the present-day global world. Youth unemployment is a challenge confronting most countries globally (Karahman, 2011). In spite of being more pronounced in developing countries, developed economies are not immune to this frightening social problem. The question of youth unemployment is among the main issues confronting the realization of overarching objectives of the government, regarding goals of development as implanted in the medium-term Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and Vision 20:2020 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As was observed by the World Bank (2006), the regenerated attention in youth and work got underway by the World Development Report of 2007, that emphasized development and the next generation. The main contention of the report is that governments and development partners should see the youth as an ‘investment opportunity’ and invest in them for the acceleration of economic growth and reduction