Government targets 10m jobs through NDE training centres

The Federal Government would train about 10million unemployed youths through the 30 training centres of the National Directorate of Employment across 14 states.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, who stated this at the just-concluded Enugu international trade fair organised by the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), explained that NDE is playing a leading role in the implementation of the Federal Government’s social intervention programmes.

He added that the Directorate has impacted about 277,637 unemployed youths and women nationwide through trainings in vocational, technical, agricultural and entrepreneurial skills and disbursed empowerment kits and cash to 40, 070 trained artisans and young entrepreneurs across the country.

He highlighted that the Federal Government has made significant progress in employment creation through the N-Power Programme, which is open to unemployed graduates and non-graduates to avail themselves of training in various fields including construction, software development and hardware servicing among many.

“Under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), a total of 9.67 million direct beneficiaries are targeted in the following programmes: Job Creation and Youth Empowerment (N-Power); National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP);National Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP), and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

The N-Power is a job creation and youth empowerment programme initiative aimed at imbibing the learn-work entrepreneurship culture in the youth between the ages of 18 – 35 years.  The Programme is made up of the following schemes – N-Power Agro, N-Power Build, N-Power Health, N-Power Tech, N-Power Junior, N-Power Teach, N-Power Tax, etc.

“The N-Power Build is a Vocational training component of N-Power dedicated to the training and certification of unemployed Nigerian Youths. It is further focused at building highly competent and skilled workforce of technicians, artisans and service professionals. It is the first step towards diversifying to knowledge based economy and designed to accelerate training and certification in various skills set for about 75,000 young unskilled and unemployed Nigerians. Registration into the N-Power Build for disadvantaged areas is still on going while training is slated to commence in May nationwide,” he explained.

He noted that the NDE is playing a significant role in the implementation of this programme, saying, “not only is the Directorate a principal member of the steering committee, NDE Skills Acquisition Centres have been selected as model training centres for trainees. Training in various skills-sets is to be delivered to trainees using about 400 private centres and 30 of NDE operated Skills Acquisition Training Centres in 14 States across the country.”

The Minister also disclosed that about 816 young graduates of tertiary institutions have been provided with transient employment where a good number of them are expected to have gained permanent employment and enhanced self-worth.

He added that a total of 26,424 trained persons are in the process of receiving loans and resettlement kilts to start their own businesses nationwide under NDE four core programmes namely: Vocational Skills Development Programme, Rural Employment Promotion Programme, Small Scale Enterprises Programme and the Special Public Works Programme.

Ngige described said the theme of the fair, which was, ‘Promoting and enhancing value addition in the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy for robust economic growth and development’, connects deeply with the current initiatives of the Federal Government at re-engineering the economy.