FG establishes committee for youth inclusion to tackle unemployment

In order to tackle unemployment and promote the inclusion of young people in the nation’s economic growth, the Federal Government has set up a committee to develop strategies and initiatives aimed at reducing unemployment rates across the country and improving the economic well-being of its citizens.

The Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Comrade Ayodele Olawande, who inaugurated the joint committee involving the Ministry and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) at his office in Abuja, gave them two weeks to complete the assignment.

Committee members were also directed to suggest measures for upscaling, including suggestions for new employment generation strategies, and also work out modalities for mainstreaming NDE Schedule Officers at the Local Government Areas into the planned “Green House Initiative” of the Minister of State for Youth Development.

They were asked to spell out the modalities and tools for harvesting credible youth unemployment data.

Olawande observed that the National Directorate of Employment’s mandate to design and implement programmes to combat mass unemployment aligns with the Ministry’s objective of providing gainful employment for Nigerian youth.

He stressed the importance of collaboration and leveraging the extensive reach of the NDE to create productive job opportunities for youth across Nigeria, adding that the committee would be responsible for examining all current NDE initiatives, identifying areas for improvement, and proposing new programmes to expedite the goal of creating jobs for young people.

He said,”Identify donor agencies and partnership organizations with specified contact persons to support the work of the NDE, particularly the improvement in the performance of its skill centres. Explore the prospects of setting up a youth employment website that will constantly be updated to reflect the true reality and perform any other functions that may be incidental toward the actualization of the objectives of the committee.”

Earlier, Mr. Umaru Aliyu, the Desk Officer of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), stated that the collaboration aims to comprehensively tackle the pressing issue of unemployment in the country.

Aliyu disclosed that the NDE has strategically appointed Desk Officers to cover all 774 Local Government Areas across the nation, noting that the collaborative effort will prioritize addressing the needs of both formal and informal youth, senior citizens, women, and persons with disabilities. He added that the initiative is set to encompass a wide range of programmes and interventions to effectively combat and reduce the overall unemployment rate in the country.