THE Federal government has planned to create about 20 million new jobs within the next four years in four sectors of the economy.
Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, disclosed this on Monday at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, according to Punch report.
The strategy was focused on job creation in the agriculture, transportation, services and construction sectors of the economy.
Enelamah who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Sunday Akpan said it had become imperative to come up with a pragmatic approach to creating jobs for Nigerian considering the level of unemployment in the country.
He added that the ministry had directed the Industrial Training Fund to come up with innovative solutions to create 20 million jobs in four sectors of the economy within the next four years.
Explaining why the ministry was targeting the four sectors, the minister said agriculture, transportation, services and construction sectors “hold the key to the diversification efforts of the federal government”.
“…With the huge contributions of these sectors to the Gross Domestic Product of the Nigerian economy, it had become imperative to explore their job creation potentials to reduce the level of unemployment in the country,” he said.
“In order to sustain and build on the successes recorded in this regard in the first tenure of President Muhammad Buhari, we are articulating and strategising with a renewed impetus towards combating the twin evils of unemployment and insecurity.
“It is on this basis that the ministry charged the Industrial Training Fund to come up with revolutionary multi-faceted job and wealth creation strategies that would lead to a lasting solution to this hydra-headed problem.
From the ITF report, Enelamah said a pragmatic strategy has been proposed, stating that within the next four years, the government would generate about 20 million jobs from four key sectors of the Nigerian economy.
This is not the first time Buhari’s government would be promising millions of jobs for Nigerians. In 2015, he promised not less than 12 million new jobs.
But the Nigerian unemployment rate has been on the increase despite the promise.
According to the latest labour statistics published by the National Bureau Statistics, the total number of people classified as unemployed increased from 17.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 20.9 million in the third quarter of 2018. That is, the per cent of unemployed Nigerians increased from 18.8 per cent to 23.1 per cent in just one year under the Buhari’s watch.