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By Bimbola Oyesola
In a bid to bridge the skills gap, which has been identified as one of the sources of growing unemployment among youths, the Federal Government is set to partner the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) to support job creation in the country.
Speaking at NECA’s 2022 job, career and employability fair, with the theme “Promoting Employability, Skills Development and Decent Work,” on Wednesday in Lagos, in partnership with over 20 companies willing to absorb over 2,000 youths that attended the fair, if they meet the standards, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said bridging the skills gap has been a source of worry to the Federal Government.
Ngige, represented by Nnamdi Enuah, the state controller at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, said much of the unemployment plaguing the nation was as a result of skills mismatch: “But on realising this situation, the Federal Government has inaugurated the Skills Council, under the chairmanship of His Excellency, the Vice President (Prof. Yemi Osibanjo), to retool both Technical Vocation Education Training (TVET), the Digital Skills Entrepreneurship, in order to create jobs.
“It might interest you that our population of 200 million people has about 65 per cent young persons, out of which young girls account for 40 per cent. So, there is an urgent need to give them not just education, but also one vocational skill or the other.
“Our ministerial mandate is being skewed to help in this area, and we shall fully cooperate with NECA to change the narrative.”
The minister stated that, in order to decisively tackle this devastation on the nation’s socio-economic system, especially the “World of Work” in the formal and informal arenas, and pursuant to the mandate of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to implement/support employment promotion activities, reduce widespread unemployment and enhance skills of Nigeria’s youth for job creation and employment, the ministry, in 2021, embarked on a nationwide training programme for youths in vocational skills acquisition and trades in the six geo-political zones of the country.
A part of the objective was also to provide opportunities for the employed to up-grade their vocational skills, to enable them to attain higher levels of efficiency.
According to him, these agree with NECA’s theme, “Promoting Employability, Skills Development and Decent Work.”
“No doubt, skills development is now viewed as an important component in addressing youth unemployment in particular and promoting economic growth in general,” he said.
In his opening remarks, Taiwo Adeniyi, the president at NECA, said the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the rate of unemployment in the country, reaching an alarming rate at 33.3 per cent in Q4 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
“For us at NECA, rather than complain about the challenges, we have decided to contribute our quota through the support of our member companies and other platforms to continue to create platforms that will help our teeming youths to be gainfully employed while at the same time contribute to the growth and development of organised businesses,” Adeniyi said.
He explained that, to ensure maximum impact and a wider coverage, the job fair would also be held in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Enugu in the course of the year.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate is producing devastating consequences such as rising criminality, an exodus of skilled and unskilled workforce and worsening poverty.
And the rate is projected to increase further by seven percentage points to 40 per cent by the end of the year, according to the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
This year’s theme aligns with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 8 that talks about promoting sustained, inclusive economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all by the year 2030, said Shakiru Lawal, the country human resources manager at Nestle.
“I want to use this opportunity to appreciate NECA for always keeping in touch with the thoughts and priority of the nation and industries in all advocacy and stakeholder engagements,” Lawal said.
Apart from appreciating the association, he also talked about the Nestle Youth Employability programme, a commitment to put young people at the heart of the company’s future: “It is an investment in talent and skills of the future.”
