Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that the federal government would continue to support efforts of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in employment generation and poverty reduction.
The minister while speaking at the Enugu International Trade Fair said the fruits of the NDE’s efforts at job creation were beginning to manifest and the federal government would continue to encourage the Directorate to seek new employment creation schemes that would exploit the abundant opportunities in the mining and agricultural subsectors in line with the agenda.
The minister, who was represented by the Director Skills Development, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibia, said the policy thrust of the APC led government relied on the provision of critical vocational skills among unskilled, semi-skilled, graduates of tertiary institutions and all other unemployed persons in Nigeria.
“The NDE will continue play a significant role as the Federal Government matches on in its quest to create mass employment opportunities for Nigerians.
“It is worthy of note that through the Small Scale Enterprises programme, the NDE inculcates the spirit of entrepreneurship into unemployed youths in various forms of business. Examples of successful beneficiaries of the NDE are present at this fair to show-case their products.
“The government shall continue to support the efforts of the Directorate in employment generation and poverty reduction. A mono-economy such as we have had in Nigeria before now can only provide momentary seasons of prosperity which is not sustainable.
“However, as we go through this period of economic re-engineering, I wish to assure Nigerians that the Federal Government is laying a solid foundation for a sustainable, prosperous and equitable Nigeria that we will all be very proud of,” he said.
In his address, acting Director General of the NDE, Mr Kunle Obayan, urged all unskilled and unemployed persons to embrace the opportunities for self-reliance as presented in all states of the federation by the NDE.
He re-affirmed the commitment of the directorate to the provision of innovative ideas and employment creation models that would continue to compliment the micro economic policies of the federal government.
He said the faithful implementations of various employment creation programmes have, to a reasonable extent, reduced the level of despair and disillusionment associated with unemployment in Nigeria.
“The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has in the last one year trained a total of 15,343 persons in various vocational, agricultural and entrepreneurial skills as well as activities in the public works sector.
“The realities of economic recession and evidences of breakthroughs emanating from self-employment initiatives have reinforced our belief in the efficacy of skills acquisition training, which globally, has demystify the seemingly intractable challenges of unemployment and poverty.
“To further deepen the effectiveness of our employment creation strategies, the NDE after completing the framework for the online registration of unemployed persons in Nigeria has commenced the actual registration of the unemployed nationwide,” Obayan said.
He urged Unemployed Nigerians to register on the portal which has the capacity to serve a job exchange linking employers and jobseekers having fully been hosted.
The DG NDE also disclosed that in a few weeks, the NDE (Remis) Smart Farmer, which is an ICT driven agricultural value chain initiative, would commence the training of youths in Ondo state.
