NDE, MINILS board inauguration: Fikpo expresses hope for youth, women empowerment, legitimate jobs

THE Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Fikpo, has expressed hope that the newly inaugurated board of the directorate will discharge their mandate and ensure that the teeming youths and women in Nigeria will be empowered with more opportunities for legitimate jobs, self-reliance and national development.

Mallam Fikpo went on to eulogise President Muhammadu Buhari over what he described as the “high premium the President places on labour studies, employment, wealth creation and social inclusion.”

The NDE DG said this when he addressed the appointed governing board members of NDE and that of Michael Imodu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS), during their inauguration in Abuja, last week.

He however, charged the board members to facilitate and fast-track the optimum and more effective implementation of their mandates.

“The reconstitution of the present boards of the NDE and MINILS by President Muhammadu Buhari and its subsequent inauguration today by the Minister of State, Ministry of Labour and Employment and the chairman of the National Directorate of Employment, Festus Keyamo, underscores the high premium that the government of President Buhari, places on labour studies, employment, wealth creation and social inclusion matters through governing boards that will quickly fast-track the agendas policy directions.

“I am sure the new boards, comprising of eminent personalities of high integrity, valour, technocrats, administrators and development experts who understand the potential of both the National Directorate of Employment and Michael Imodu Institute of Labour Studies will facilitate and fast-track the optimum and more effective implementation of their mandates.

“The entire management and staff of the two agencies warmly welcome the new boards with maximum hopefulness and confidence that Nigerians especially labour, the teaming unemployed youths and women will be empowered towards more opportunities for legitimate jobs, self-reliance and national development.

“Permit me to look forward with excitement towards working together and taking the two agencies to greater heights through the formulation of robust policy guidelines and provision of an enabling environment for the actualisation of our mandate for the benefit of Nigerians and indeed humanity,” he said.

On his part, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who headed the inauguration ceremony, stated that the board and council would drive the general policy formulation and implementation in the two agencies.

According to him, the board and council would be responsible for “setting out the agencies’ economic, financial, operational and administrative policies, programmes and targets in line with the overall objectives of government.

“They also have the responsibility of meeting targets, introducing broad policy measures for seamless operations and supervising the management to ensure that targets are achieved.”

He noted that the individual and collective mandates of those two establishments, NDE and NILS, rested on capacity building, job creation, generation of wealth, labour education and sustained development of the country.

Keyamo added that the challenge before the board and council was one of “re-engineering and developing new strategies and suitable modalities for translating the broad objectives of government to tangible goals in the lives of the citizens, especially the most vulnerable.”

He enjoined the members to be committed to realising the specific mandate of the board and council and the broad social objectives of the government.

The Minister also urged members to ensure that the management of their agencies adhered strictly to the provisions of the Public Service Rules, the Financial Regulations, and the Procurement Act.

He charged the board and council to ensure that all outstanding arrears owed workers were cleared promptly, and audited accounts of the agencies prepared and submitted to the relevant authorities as and when due.

Keyamo expressed confidence that the board and council would live up to the expectations of the government and called on members to employ their expertise and ingenuity in turning around the fortunes of the agencies.

Keyamo is the chairman of the Board, National Directorate of Employment, while the Director-General, National Institute for Labour Studies, Issa Aremu, is the Head, Governing Council of the Institute.