FG to partner groups to create jobs, says labour minister

The Federal Government is open to collaborating with non-governmental organisations to create employment opportunities, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, has said.

The minister said this in Abuja when he received a consortium of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who are members of the United Nations NGO Committee on Social Development, led by its national head, Daniel Black.

He expressed the government’s readiness to collaborate with civil society organisations in generating creative ideas on how to create safe jobs, including blue-collar jobs, for the unemployed, particularly for youths.

He said: “The Federal Government’s objectives, as well as initiatives, in this area, are to ensure that people get jobs they can call their own; jobs that they have tried to establish on their own, not white-collar jobs; jobs that can generate a lot of employment for our youths. Our mandate is to create opportunities for jobs and to ensure the youths of the country are gainfully employed through several other means of engagement.

He said in preparation for participation in that session, the group plans to hold a United Nations Social Development workshop which is aimed at fostering collaboration between the government and civil society organisations to increase and improve the social development indicators in Nigeria.

Black added: “At the end of that workshop, we are going to develop a report that we will be presenting in New York during the 63rd session of the United
Nations Commission for Social Development. The report will highlight the reality of social development in Nigeria, and we will also be mentioning the roles that different parastatals and government ministries are playing to ensure that these social development indicators are improved.”

He invited the Ministry to the workshop to share insights on its activities to positively impact social development indices in the country, stressing the strong connection between labour, employment, decent work and social development.