Nigeria to create 15 mln jobs in 5 years

The National Committee on Job Creation says about 15 million jobs will be created in five years in Nigeria, if its recommendations are implemented.

Chairman of the Committee Aliko Dangote made this known at the presentation of the report on job creation to the National Economic Management Team (NEMT) in Abuja.

He listed the recommendations to include massive overhaul of the national skills acquisition capacity to help facilitate job creation.

"A key recommendation in our report is therefore the massive overhaul of our national skills acquisition capacity in order to better align the skills that our citizens have, to the skills that the country needs to grow and develop," he added.

"Central to this is the need to resuscitate structured, credible and respected vocational programmes to provide the skills that will fuel the growth of local industry and improve that attractiveness of vocational careers," Dangote said.

He said the committee also recommended that core sectors such as agriculture and agro-allied, manufacturing, building and construction, should be adequately explored, adding that a deep examination of the small and medium industries would help to create jobs.
Other recommendations include creation of an enabling environment that supports entrepreneurs as they set up businesses.

Dangote said the committee also recommended the provision of opportunities for existing businesses to grow and transform ``from micro to small, small to medium and medium to large'' thereby employing more people.
He said it also called for the gradual pulling of the informal and unstructured sector into the mainstream of the economy to enable it to benefit from government and private sector interventions.

The committee also recommended the appointment of a Special Adviser to the President on job creation to facilitate the implementation of policies, adding that the person should be a member of NEMT, Dangote said.
Earlier, Olusegun Aganga, the Minister of Finance and Chairman of NEMT, had said that Nigeria needed to create jobs for its people especially the youth.

"We are a country of over 140 million people with an overall unemployment rate of 19.7 percent as of December 2009," he said.

"The rate of unemployment is highest in the 15 years to 24 years old age-group at 41.6 percent and is 17 percent in 25 years to 44 years old age-group," the minister added.

Aganga said government effort was to foster economic growth by providing the opportunities for economic and human development as well as to accelerate job creation to ensure sustainable growth.
He said the committee was formed to tackle the problems of unemployment head-on, adding that government strategy was for the private sector to lead in job creation.

"The government alone cannot be the main source of new jobs for the economy; it will intervene where possible but our belief is that a sustainable expansion in employment level must be sourced from the private sector," the minister said.

The committee was inaugurated on July 16 to develop action plan encompassing practice and specific interventions for ensuring increased job creation.