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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has said that it has begun reviewing its plans and programmes as part of its attempts to meet new job creation targets.
Mallam Abubakar Fikpo, the Director General of NDE, who provided an update on the agency’s operations in a statement on Wednesday, said the organisation was consciously working to broaden the scope of job creation in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Fikpo said: “As part of the efforts, we are reviewing our schemes and programmes. Serious attention is being given to all our methods of operations.
“We are fostering collaboration with other government agencies, private sector organisations, donor agencies and philanthropists. The reality is that the government has a lot of responsibilities that involve utilisation of money, but unfortunately resources are very scarce.
“This is therefore why we are very serious about collaborating with all and sundry henceforth to ensure the expansion of our schemes and programmes,” he said.
The director general said that NDE was committed to the provision of innovative ideas to scale up its job employment creation models that will continue to complement the micro economic policies of the federal government.
“NDE is poised to create more jobs, especially in the hinterland of the country through our various schemes such as the School-on-Wheels (SOW) scheme. The scheme will be re-engineered and equipped to provide training facilities to communities where there are inadequate or non-existing facilities for vocational skills training.
“This is to provide equitable and inclusive opportunities for jobs and self-reliance to Nigerians whether in urban, semi urban or rural communities,” he said.
He noted that the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, had given the agency a matching order to ensure creation of more jobs for Nigerian youths.
Regarding the persisting unemployment crisis in Nigeria, Fikpo said the high rate of unemployment was a function of the geometric rise in population and ignorance of available opportunities for skills acquisition and self employment by diverse unemployment groups in Nigeria.
He added that the NDE had trained and empowered many graduates in tertiary institutions, school leavers and dropouts through different skills acquisition schemes and programmes.
In addition, Fikpo said that NDE had assisted many with soft loans to kick-start businesses, noting that it was geared to do more in the year 2024.
According to him, in the past, many unemployed persons in the country were reluctant to key in and utilise the vast opportunities of skills acquisition programmes as alternatives to the unavailable white collar jobs. However he said there had been a serious positive change.
“As the year 2023 winds down, it is worthy of note that NDE has done tremendously well in its job creation programmes.
“Despite the challenge of global economic depression that equally affected government’s resources, the NDE is proud to say that it provided job opportunities to many unemployed persons and put smiles on their faces,” he said.
