…building database for skills assessment, employment, entrepreneurship needs
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has embarked on a registration of the nation’s teeming unemployed.
This is with a view to generating a reliable document for statistics, analysis and response to labour, skills and entrepreneurship needs and deficiencies.
The strategy is to upgrade the existing database on numbers, currency, detail, educational content lapses and relevance. It will also address the evolving skills sets and training content required in entrepreneurship and the labour market across sectors today.
Progression is then made to identifying and articulating the nature of firming up, or redirection of content that might be required in formal, vocational and informal education and training institutions and programmes.
The envisioned outcome is to encourage the development of required industry skills, provide gainful employment and give traction to entrepreneurship.
It is to further bolster the confidence of financial and other institutions which support the establishment and growth of small and medium enterprises. Small and medium enterprises are the engine rooms of all economies, especiall developing ones, experts say.
Mrs Ifeoma Ezekwe,the Enugu State Coordinator of the National Directorate of Employment told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Friday in Enugu, that the exercise was being held across the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja.
Ezekwe said the registration was going on simultaneously across the 774 local government areas (LGAs) nationwide, adding that it was for all classes of unemployed; and with or without any educational qualifications.
According to her, the essence of the exercise is to capture all unemployed persons to help the country with proper planning, as well as engage them in profitable ventures with a view to curbing crime and boosting economic development.
“The country cannot plan without data. Data is very important in planning, and NDE since 1987, had been in the business of reducing the number of unemployed people, making them employers of labour and self-employed.
“I was appointed the state coordinator in May 2022, and I am fortunate to serve under the current Director-General of NDE, Malam Nuhu Fikpo, whom I call employment generator.
“I call him employment generator because since he came on board, we have never had a minute rest without activities and programmes,” she said.
Ezekwe explained that NDE had four key programmes which include vocational skills, small skills enterprises, rural empowerment and special public works.
She said that the state directorate just concluded training for women in the manufacture of bags and shoes, so that even as full time housewives, they could be gainfully engaged and earn money.
She said when the directorate trains people, it supports them with stipends for transport and other attendant needs.
She further observed that the NDE had faced challenges such as paucity of funds and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Naira re-design policy, but expressed optimism that the directorate would be able to discharge its mandate.
Ezekwe called on the state government to assist the agency with vehicles that could be used to access the hard to reach LGAs in the state.
Meanwhile, KPMG a financial sector consulting firm has stated that the Nigerian unemployment rate had increased to 37.7per cent in 2022 and will further rise to 40.6per cent, due to the continuing inflow of job seekers into the job market.
The multinational consulting firm, in a recent report, tagged ‘KPMG Global Economy Outlook report, H1 2023,’ said unemployment will continue to be a challenge due to the slower-than-required economic growth and the inability of the economy to absorb the 4-5 million new entrants into the Nigerian job market every year.
