Skip to main content

FG votes N500bn to tackle unemployment, says Ngige

Dr Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, said the Federal Government voted N500 billion to tackle unemployment and provide care for the vulnerable.

Ngige said this during a courtesy visit by the Rwandan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Stanislas Kamanzi in Abuja.
The minister said the Federal Government was determined to face the menace of unemployment squarely, especially among the youth in the country.
He said the government would fight spiritedly to solve the unemployment problem totally in the country.
Ngige said government was also poised to engaging the over 500,000 that graduate yearly from the nation’s institutions, adding that this will prevent them from engaging in untoward activities.
He regretted that the people of Rwanda shared a common trend of poverty, ignorance and high rate of unemployment with Nigeria, saying government would seek collaboration to curtail the scourge.
The minister said that the ministry would engage any country willing to cooperate in removing obstacles on the way of keeping the Nigerian youth busy.
He said Nigeria was ready to get out of poverty, adding that the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari was determined to return the country back on the track.
“The government of President Buhari will fight terrorism, insecurity of lives and property and corruption, which have made it impossible for the country to grow.”
Ngige said that there were plans to engage the youth in rice production and they would be responsible for the packaging and sale of the produce.
According to him, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will embark on an entrepreneurship scheme to engage the youth, including the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to train artisans in skills acquisition across the country.
Earlier, Kamanzi said the ministry was key to the provision of employment to the youth and should do all within its power not to disappoint them.
He said the Rwandan government would look at the area of cooperation with Nigeria to curtail youth restiveness due to unemployment.
The envoy said some Nigerian youths who were unemployed had in the past engaged in activities detrimental to the country because of their seeming lack of hope.
Earlier, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle, who also visited the minister, said that Nigerians were focused, talented and smart people especially the young ones.
Entwistle, however, lamented that it was most shocking that the youths did not have jobs.
The U.S. envoy said that lack of job was the greatest challenge facing the administration of President Buhari.
The ambassador urged the government to help young talented Nigerians find job so that they could play a role in the society and enhance the nation's economy. (NAN)

Comments

Popular Posts

#AT LAST: FG, marketers agree to end fuel scarcity next week

The Federal Government and petrol marketers on Friday agreed to put an end to Nigeria’s fuel scarcity problems before the close of business next week Saturday. The Punch had reported exclusively that the government would meet with the marketers on Friday in a bid to address the prolonged fuel scarcity problems. The meeting, which was well attended by stakeholders in the sector, had top officials from the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Others were heads from the Department of Petroleum Resources, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Petroleum Equalisation Fund and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Reading out the resolution reached after the meeting which lasted for several hours at the headquarters of the petroleum ministry, the Permanent...

President Zuma condemns killing of police officers

President Jacob Zuma has strongly condemned the killing of five police officers in the past week and called on members of the public to work with law enforcement agencies in the fight against crime and the creation of safer communities.