Ngige pledges restructuring of labour agencies for optimal performance

The Federal Government has put in place structures that would streamline activities of parastatals in the ministry of labour to optimize their outputs, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has said.

Speaking in Abuja on the achievements recorded in the ministry in the last one year, Ngige hinted that government is focusing more attention on parastatals that have job creation mandates such as National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) that is executing employees compensation scheme.

He hinted that in the last three months, the NDE has empowered over 4000 Nigerians under the Artisans Resettlement and Mentoring Scheme while recruiting and training of over 1,850 persons around the nation under the Community Based Training Scheme (CBTS).

He added: “The NDE has under the period also empowered three hundred and seventy newly trained agricultural entrepreneurs under another NDE scheme termed Commercial Farmers Training Project with soft loans amounting to N37million to start agro-business across the states of the federation. Its Graduate Coaching Scheme has also engaged over five hundred graduates with qualifications in education as WAEC/NECO/JAMB instructors in designated centres in the country.”

Ngige stated that NDE is presently partnering reputable data companies to do a comprehensive work on data on unemployment peculiarities and strategic area and make such information available real time and that can ascertain reliable and accurate employment indices in the country.

He stated that the ministry has embarked on sensitisation; revaluation and broadening of the statutory roles of the NSITF with a view to enabling it realize government objectives in line with the ILO’s decent job provision of uplifting the welfare of workers.