NIGERIA has requested the support of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for the development of a strategy aimed of training Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the insurgency-ravaged North East of Nigeria.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, who made the request at the just-concluded 13th African regional meeting of the ILO in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said millions of displaced people urgently needs to be rehabilitated.
He added: “We wish to partner the ILO in the development of a strategy to rehabilitate and train the majority of the over 20 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) affected by insurgency in North-Eastern part of Nigeria. We need comprehensive crisis response strategies to capture them in the Social Security Net.”

The Minister also assured the meeting of the strong commitment of the Federal Government to frontally tackle the challenges posed by massive unemployment through the expansion of the nation’s capacity in agriculture, solid minerals and industry. He restated that President Muhammadu Buhari administration will deploy sound social protection strategies to avail credit facilities to small and medium scale enterprises.

Addressing the theme of this year’s conference entitled, ‘Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Africa through Decent Work Agenda’, the Minister said that the Federal Government was totally committed to the realization of Decent Work Agenda for Africa (DWAA) saying Nigeria has recorded significant millstones in some thematic areas through the establishment of institutions that facilitated gap closure in core skill acquisition areas.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the ILO, Guy Ryder has expressed the Organization’s commitment to deepening relationship with Nigeria through provision of technical cooperation activities to the Federal Government, especially in its efforts at job creation.

The Director General accepted to visit Nigeria, a move, which the Minister described as unprecedented as no (ILO) Director General has ever visited Nigeria since the formation of the world body.
He confirmed that ILO has favourably considered Nigeria’s request to set up a decent work multidisciplinary team and upgrading of ILO Nigeria office in Abuja in view of its strategic position and contributions to International Labour Diplomacy, adding that the Organization will also participate in Nigeria’s social security programme which is an ILO initiative.

Earlier in his presentation, the Minister had solicited continued relationship with the ILO, while appreciating the organization’s role in the provision of technical and financial support for employment generation programmes in Nigeria.

“Closer partnership with your Organization at this material time is crucial to our nation. Our Government, which is barely six month old, inherited an economy bested by myriads of challenges that need strong and focused leadership to surmount.

We are therefore re-doubling efforts to stimulate the economy by gingering the untapped creative capacity of our people especially the youths, through the promotion of varying range of vocational skills intended to achieve a self-reliant population.

“This has been at the heart of measures taken so far by our President, Muhammadu Buhari.

Our efforts are geared towards creating a conducive environment for businesses to thrive and inject direct economic intervention measures meant to create jobs and lift our people from poverty line. The assistant of the ILO in this respect therefore is key,” the Minister said.