Unemployment burden still weighs us down, says minister

The Federal Government has said that it has recorded some successes in industry, trade and investment, but still carrying the burden of ending the youth unemployment menace.

At the closing ceremony of the 14th National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment (NCITI) in Bauchi State, yesterday, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Richard Adebayo, said the ministry’s initiatives and successes were too numerous to mention at the forum, but that there were still a lot of grounds to cover.

Adebayo said: “The nation is looking to us to solve big problems such as the unemployment of almost 30 million people, who are mostly youth. Given the size of our challenges as a nation, we must design interventions to address the scale of the problems we need to solve. This will ensure we come up with creative/innovative ways to finance, implement and ultimately deliver transformative results.”

The event witnessed the unveiling of the first Nigeria-assembled electric Hyundai car, among others.

Governor Bala Mohammed, the host, commended the Federal Government for all the intervention programmes and projects channelled to the state.