Young graduates in Adado district say nepotism and corruption are preventing them from getting jobs.
Abdifatah Ahmed Farah, 26, a newly married graduate from a Mogadishu university, said he had been job hunting for a long time. “The biggest problem we are facing is that many employers here are hiring employees on the basis of nepotism and favoritism,” he said.
Young female graduates in Galgadud region are reported to be the worst affected by unemployment.
Speaking to Radio Ergo, university graduate Dekha Yussuf Abtidon said corruption and nepotism was worsts within the non-governmental sector. “You might see several people employed in the same company due to their family ties with a member of the organization’s management. This is not fair,” she complained.
She blamed the Himan and Heb administration in Adado for failing to address rising unemployment and for not ensuring fairness and transparency in the job market.
But Mohamed Hussein, who works at a privately-owned health centre in Adado, said hard work paid off. “I made much an effort to get my current job. I was offered it after the organization checked my educational background and competency for the position I applied for. I was never assisted by anybody to get it,” he said.
Himan and Heb education and youth affairs secretary Ahmed Hussein Khayre said his ministry recruited in a professional way, by considering experience, competence and education of candidates.
But he admitted there was an acute shortage of job opportunities in the town, leaving 60 per cent of Adado’s educated youths without jobs.
Local professor Abdullahi Hirsi Dirshe called on unemployed youth to create their own jobs in fishing, farming and livestock, instead of pointing the finger at the failures of the local administration.
Many young people say they are pushed to migrate because of the dearth of opportunities at home.
