Buhari committed to job creation - Minister says

Nigige said this in an event held to give account of his ministries achievements and the various accomplishments of the present administration.

He said “Notwithstanding the prevailing economic down turn, government is doing its best in the provision of jobs, with emphasis though on blue-collar. The main agency of job creation is the National Directorate of Employment, which is under my ministry.

“The NDE has over 100 skills acquisition centres across Nigeria, apart from the ones owned by some federal ministries, agencies and states. Since I came in, we have embarked on the rehabilitation and re-equipping of these NDE skills centres to enhance their training capacity. We are establishing a liaison with other skill centres owned by other ministries, agencies and state governments so as to synchronise and standardise their operations. We are working to institutionalise them as training centres whose certificates – Trade Test 1, Trade Test 2 & Trade Test 3 can be recognised internationally just like the City and Guild certificate of the old.”

“Trade graduates of these centres such as in tiling, mechatronics, metal works, welding, plumbing, mason, POP production and laying, info-technology among others will primarily find opportunities in the formal and informal sectors and arrest a situation where a dominant percentage of such low cadre skills are provided for us by Ghananians, Togolese and citizens of other West African countries,” Ngige said.

The Federal Government plans to utilise the National Directorate of Employment’s (NDE) vocational skills development programme to create jobs for unskilled and unemployed Nigerian youths.

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