FG restates commitment to local content, job creation

The Federal Government has reaffirmed the commitment of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to the implementation of the Local Content Act, described as pivotal to the job creation initiatives.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, stated this at the weekend when he received members of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), led by its president, Otis Anyaeji, on a working visit.
Ngige said, “In any given contract, the labour content must be determined. We intend to henceforth take a critical look at every council memo to ensure that it addresses the issue of local content, with a view to ensuring that Federal Government contracts generate jobs for the teeming unemployed Nigerians. We will do everything possible to make sure that jobs are not only created but are also decent jobs that can guarantee the safety of Nigerians in their work places.”
The minister urged members of the NSE to key into the economic recovery programme of the Federal Government by leading the way in the paradigm shift from depending on limited white-collar job to the blue collar sector, which is capable of revitalising the nation’s economy.
“You are very important to the society, especially at this time that the government has an economic recovery and growth programme,” Ngige said, expressed his ministry’s readiness to partner with the NSE on workplace inspection, adding that his ministry was in the process of recruiting safety engineers and technicians in its Department of Occupational Safety and Health, to boost the inspection capacity of the ministry at workplaces and engineering sites.
Ngige urged the society to ensure that all workers are insured under the Employee Compensation Act to guarantee their protection and compensation in the case of a workplace accident.
Earlier, in his remarks, president of the NSE, Anyaeji, expressed his association’s readiness to partner with the Ministry of Labour and Employment in job creation and industrial safety, saying “the society will help to identify areas of high volume/revenue imports, especially engineering goods and services, where local capacity and needed resources are available but latent.”
“The society will help to promote the establishment and sustenance of these affected sectors with the aim of reversing capital flight, create and retain jobs,” he said.
Anyaeji added that working in collaboration with the ministry, the NSE would harness its specialist health, safety and environmental capacities to ensure that workplace standards are set and sustained.