The high unemployment rate in the country can be curbed through skill acquisition and the development of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, has said.

Ahmed told journalists in Ilorin on Tuesday that the high rate of graduate unemployment in the country was worrisome.

"Unemployment is the biggest challenge that Nigeria is facing today. Kwara State is not an exception and the state must be seen to be supportive of human capital development. The biggest strength of our people or any system is the people. And we must bring them to usable levels," the governor said.

He said the nation's education curriculum should be tailored toward providing the relevant skills and competences to the students such that they would become job and wealth creators and avoid the dependence on paid employment after graduation.

Ahmed said his administration had provided about N3.2bn for employment generation, skill development and acquisition as well as motivation of the state's workforce.

He said the biggest asset of any organisation was its human capital, adding that it was imperative to motivate the workforce and ensure a regular updating of human capital and intellectual assets.

He said the state government had provided N3bn car loans to about 5,155 civil servants as a motivating strategy to achieve increased productivity.

The governor said civil servants were the foot soldiers of good governance, noting that they usually worked silently to ensure the development of the state.

He said it was imperative to cater for their welfare to enhance service delivery, higher productivity and the realisation of the objectives of the government.

He said governments must uphold policies that would generate employment, wealth creation and develop the SMEs.

The governor also said that motivation of the workforce was inevitable for higher productivity.

Ahmed said the government had organised artisans in the state into clusters to sharpen their skills and had also provided a revolving loan of N50m for them.

He added that to fight unemployment and provide skilled manpower, the state government had intensified work on the International Skill Acquisition Centre at Ajase-Ipo.