The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is becoming a source of worry for the government and society at large. Youth empowerment is an enterprise that helps to re-engineer the potentials and energies for peace and stability in order to decrease the rate of poverty, unemployment, and criminality. The aim of empowerment programmes is to provide education, employment assistance, health, housing referrals, and support services for citizens who are in disadvantaged positions due to incarceration, poverty, homelessness, HIV/AIDS infection, and/or involvement in the criminal justice system. This review paper was undertaken to keep us informed of the overview of youth empowerment from inception of democratic rule, approaches geared towards reduction of unemployment, problems encountered in youth empowerment programs from successive government and suggest possible strategies of empowering the youth in Nigeria.