2012 budget will be used for employment generation - Labour Minister

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, has declared that his ministry's 2012 budget is tailored towards achieving Federal Government's transformation agenda, especially in the area of employment, industrial peace and harmony.he minister, who was speaking during the presentation of the budget before the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, at the National Assembly in Abuja, said his priority was to focus on employment generation.'These projects and programmes were carefully selected to enable the ministry to vigorously pursue its mandate and at the same time contribute towards the attainment of Mr Presi-dent's transformation agenda,' Chief Wogu said.While highlighting the achievements of the ministry in 2011, Chief Wogu emphasised that despite the meagre capital fund at his disposal, the ministry was able to achieve its set targets.He said the ministry had a successful intervention in about 78 trade disputes, production of guideline and regulation on employment of contract staff in the oil and gas sector; licensed 161 employment agencies (PEAs) through the issuance of Recruiters Licenses; graduated 2,860 from the ministry's skills upgrading centres; developed a draft National Labour Migration Policy, with technical support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Organisation for Migration.Chief Wogu appealed to the committee to restructure the ministry's budget within the approved plan to accommodate skills development and certification pro-jects with a view to filling the obvious skills gap in the country, in the face of high level of unemployment.
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