The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has in the last one year trained a total of 15,343 persons in various vocational, agricultural and entrepreneurial skills as well as activities in the public works sector.
The Director-General (DG) of NDE, Mr. Olakunle Obayan made this known as the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the policy thrust of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration solely relied on the provision of critical vocational skills among unskilled, semi-skilled, graduates of tertiary institutions and all other unemployed persons in Nigeria.
The NDE director general and the Minister were both speaking on the occasion of NDE Special Day, at the 2017 edition of the Enugu International Trade Fair.
Obayan also said that the NDE has just last week commenced the registration of the unemployed persons nationwide in order to deepen the effectiveness of the directorates’ employment creation strategies.
The DG said: “To further deepen the effectiveness of our employment creation strategies, the NDE, after completing the framework for the online registration of unemployed persons in Nigeria has commenced the actual registration of the unemployed nationwide.
“I am glad to inform this august gathering that a work-station is functional at the NDE stand at this fair from where any unemployed person can register. Other Nigerians can avail themselves of this service by logging on to www.jobsforall.ng.
“We consider this a very critical input into the process of designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all programmes and schemes of the Directorate. Unemployed Nigerians are expected to register on the portal which has the capacity to serve a job exchange linking employers and jobseekers having fully been hosted.”
Obayan stated that in a few weeks, the NDE (Remis) Smart Farmer, which is an ICT driven agricultural value chain initiative, will commence the training of youths in Ondo State.
He explained that the NDE Smart Farmer is the directorates’ modest approach at making agriculture attractive to young Nigerians as well as building a sustainable method of agribusiness practices in Nigeria.
He said: “Trade fairs and other exhibitions remain major platforms upon which practitioners of micro enterprises gain exposure and enjoy unhindered access to the business world. The participation of the NDE in trade fairs over the years has always provided opportunities for the beneficiaries of our programmes to showcase the efforts and commitment of the Federal Government through the Directorate at self-employment creation.”
Obayan pointed out that the NDE has reasons to rejoice in the strength of its four core programmes: Vocational Skills Development (VSD), Small Scale Enterprises (SSE), Rural Employment Promotion (REP), and Special Public Works (SPW) Programmes.
He emphasized that the faithful implementation of these employment creation programmes have, to a reasonable extent, reduced the level of despair and disillusionment associated with unemployment in Nigeria.
According to him, the realities of economic recession and evidences of breakthroughs emanating from self-employment initiatives have reinforced the belief in the efficacy of skills acquisition training, which globally, has demystify the seemingly intractable challenges of unemployment and poverty.
The minister, Senator Ngige reassured Nigerians of the commitment of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration to tackling mass unemployment and giving Nigerians a better life through several well-articulated employment generation programmes and schemes.
Ngige said the fruits of the government efforts are beginning to manifest, adding that the Federal Government through the NDE is demonstrating at the trade fair the possibility of a quick turn-around in our socio-economic fortunes.
The minister said: “Our policy thrust relied on the provision of critical vocational skills among unskilled, semi-skilled, graduates of tertiary institutions and all other unemployed persons in Nigeria.
“You may recall the unprecedented feat that has been accomplished through the various components of the N-Power initiative. I recently directed the Management of the NDE to introduce new employment creation schemes that will exploit the abundant opportunities in the mining and agricultural subsectors of the Nigerian economy in line with the agenda of the APC government at the centre.”
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