The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is set to create 90,000 jobs in 30 different skill sets.

The Director General, Silas Agara, who disclosed this yesterday in his office, hinted that the organisation is working with Galaxy Backbone and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to create an automated job portal.

He explained that the directorate intends to create 10 jobs per ward saying steps would be taken to engender transparency of the process.

“We have come up with a programme that will be unveiled 90,000 news jobs are targeted and 30 skills. We are going to the portal next week because it is about 98 per cent completed,” he stated.

Speaking on the credibility of the process, he said the beneficiaries will be chosen by the NDE state coordinators and zonal directors to ensure that those that are picked reside in the states where they are chosen.”

Agara further explained that after undergoing training for three months, the beneficiaries would be placed on the NDE portal where Nigerians can contact them for job opportunities, adding, “Gone are the days when artisans are not found where they are needed. After undergoing the training, Nigerians will be able to contact them for jobs on our portal. The professionals would be known with definite addressees and can be traced. The security of Nigerians that patronise them will be guaranteed.”

He added that another reason state coordinators are chosen to drive the process is to make sure the skills that are chosen for states are peculiar to each state of the federation.

He hinted that while the programme will run for three months, the NDE will assist some of the trainees in establishing their outfits, and there is a partnership with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to help establish more.

Agara disclosed that the new programme will not incorporate the old trainees, adding: “Those that have been trained before will not benefit from this new initiative. This is because the old trainees were trained under analogue with registers that we cannot attest to their integrity. Besides, it is better to extend the training to other young people and new graduates that are yet to benefit from NDE programmes.”

When told that similar programmes were hijacked by the political class, especially the National Assembly members, the NDE boss assured that deliberate efforts would be made to ensure the opportunity is evenly distributed.