The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) has created 320,000 direct and indirect jobs over the past decade, while training more than 30,000 youths for employment opportunities. Feyisayo Alayande, executive secretary of LSETF, disclosed that the fund also saved 173,000 jobs on the brink of collapse since its inception. More than N15 billion has been disbursed through over 20,000 loans to micro, small and medium enterprises, supporting over 82,000 small businesses with capacity-building programmes.
Under the Lagos Innovates initiative, over 1,200 tech startups have received support and 3,300 tech talents developed. Alayande highlighted a participant from the First Female Founder and Funders Programme who presented her project at the GITEX technology exhibition, citing it as evidence of the fund's networking impact. A woman living with a disability who completed an LSETF-Lafarge training programme in phone repair went on to start her own business, while other vocational trainees have secured jobs at LG and the Lagos Intercontinental Hotel.
Alayande attributed the fund's 94.53 percent loan repayment rate to the reliability of Lagos entrepreneurs, stating, "Lagos entrepreneurs are not a risk, but an opportunity and they have proven it constantly." Partnerships with GIZ, UNDP, King's Trust International, Lafarge, and Diageo have helped align training with market needs and create formal employment pathways. Despite these gains, awareness of LSETF's programmes remains uneven, with eligible business owners in Alimosho, youths in Ikorodu, and tech startups in Yaba often unaware of available opportunities.
LSETF plans to expand training cohorts and host the Lagos Employment Summit 4.0 in the fourth quarter of 2026. The summit will convene government, private sector actors, development partners, and civil society to shape employment and enterprise development strategies for the next ten years.
Feyisayo Alayande celebrates 320,000 jobs created yet admits many in Alimosho, Ikorodu and Yaba still don't know LSETF exists. The fund's success is concentrated in visibility hotspots while gaps persist in high-need areas. A summit in 2026 to plan the next decade of employment feels premature when current programmes haven't reached all corners of the present one. Lagos entrepreneurs may be proving their reliability, but the system is still failing to find them.
Editorial note: AI-assisted opinion, not established fact. Full disclaimer →
