Minister of State, Labour and Employment Festus Keyamo(SAN) has described the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) as the hub of blue collar jobs in Nigeria.
The minister spoke recently during the NDE Special Day event at the 44th Kaduna International Trade Fair in Kaduna.
Speaking on the theme, “Promoting Value Addition for Sustainable Growth and Development”, the minister who is also the chairman of the NDE Board, said the Skills Acquisition Programme of the NDE, Its Entrepreneurship Development Programme, the Rural Employment Promotion and the Special Public Works activities were all in line with the economic policy thrust of the federal government which has special focus on employment creation for sustainable growth and development for national economy.
Represented by NDE Director-General, Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, the minister said the agency had “several skill-sets and a spectrum of Training Schemes which are demand driven and capable of taking thousands of jobless youths out of the street.”
Earlier in his welcome address, the NDE boss disclosed that the directorate had created over four million jobs through her four core programmes which are Vocational Skills Development (VSD), Small Scale Enterprises (SSE), Rural Employment Promotion (REP) and Special Public Works (SPW).
He said the outfit “is a regular participant at International Trade Fairs organized in the country to provide opportunities for the beneficiaries of her various skills acquisition programmes in order to showcase efforts and commitment of the Federal Government at self-employment creation.”
