The Nigerian Government has established a committee focused on youth inclusion in economic growth to be led by the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, which will develop strategies to reduce nationwide unemployment and enhance economic well-being for citizens.
Minister of State, Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, launched the joint committee comprising representatives from the Ministry and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Abuja.
Olawande observed that the National Directorate of Employment’s mandate to design and implement programmes to combat mass unemployment aligns with the Ministry’s objective of providing gainful employment for Nigerian youth.
He emphasised the importance of collaboration and leveraging the extensive reach of the NDE to create productive job opportunities for youth across Nigeria, adding that the committee would be responsible for examining all current NDE initiatives, identifying areas for improvement, and proposing new programmes to expedite the goal of creating jobs for the young people.
While giving the Committee two weeks to complete its assignment, Olawande highlighted the terms of reference, which include the following task :
“Review all existing initiatives of the NDE and suggest measures for upscaling; including suggestions for new employment generation strategies, work out the modalities for mainstreaming NDE Schedule Officers at the Local Government Areas into the planned “Green House Initiative” of the Minister of State for Youth Development, Spell out the modalities and tools for harvesting credible youth unemployment data.
“Identify donor agencies and partnership organisations with specified contact persons, to support the work of the NDE, particularly the improvement in the performance of its skill centres, Explore the prospects of setting up a youth employment website that will constantly be updated to reflect the true reality and perform any other functions that may be incidental towards the actualisation of the objectives of the committee”.
Earlier, Mr. Umaru Aliyu, the Desk Officer of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), stated that the collaboration aims to comprehensively tackle the pressing issue of unemployment in the country.
Aliyu disclosed that the NDE has strategically appointed Desk Officers to cover all 774 Local Government areas across the nation, noting that the collaborative effort will prioritise addressing the needs of both formal and informal youth, senior citizens, women, and persons with disabilities.
He added that the initiative is set to encompass a wide range of programmes and interventions to effectively combat and reduce the overall unemployment rate in the country.
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