Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala |
The Minister for Finance,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Tuesday in Abuja said no fewer than 1.8 million
graduates in the country move into the labour market every year.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is also
the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, made this known during a meeting with delegates of the Arewa Youth
Forum on issues of youth development in the northern part of the country.
She said that the data was
generated by National Bureau of Statistics and that it was to enable the
Federal Government to ascertain the level of youth unemployment and come up
with policies to address it.
She said, “I am proud to
say that after two months of methodological work, the statisticians have come
up with the data that 1.8 million people in the country enter the job market
yearly.
“I am happy to tell you
that last year we were able to create 1.6 million jobs. So, we are getting
close to the 1.8 million that enter the job market.
Also, he said, “We also
have a pool of 5.3 million unemployed graduates that have been accumulating
over the years.
“So our strategy is to
come up with policies that will cover the number of entrants every year before
taking care of the backlog.”
The minister said that
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was doing a lot to create
employment opportunities for the youth.
“Through YouWin programme,
we have had 3,600 winners, among whom 2,400 winners have created 27,000 jobs so
far. Our target is to create a minimum of 80,000 jobs through this.
“Through SURE-P, so far,
we have created 120,000 jobs. While YouWin is geared towards graduates, the
SURE-P is for those youths who may not have gone through school or did not
complete their education.
“The President has
launched the National Mortgage Re-finance Corporation which will not only
provide housing for the low income earners but will simultaneously create
thousands of jobs for our youth.
“We are targeting 10,000
mortgages this year and for every house you build, you create five direct jobs
and two and half indirect jobs, which can create another 75,000 jobs,” she
added.
On agriculture,
Okonjo-Iweala said that more than 400,000 part time jobs had been created and
had become a source of good income for the youth.
She also said that the
government was designing a special programme for states in the North-East
region, adding that the scheme would
focus on education and agriculture. (culled from Punch)
No comments:
Post a Comment