Nigerias economic growth is without job creation- FG

The Federal Goverment declared, on Thursday, that the  economic growth, experienced in the country over the years was achieved without job creation and employment generation.Speaking at a May Day lecture entitled: Growing the national economy for job creation and peoples welfare, Minister of National Planning and former Minister of Finance, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, said Nigeria had achieved reasonable growth rate since 1999 with no significant effect on poverty.Dr Usman said the growth was also without significant effect on employment, adding that unemployment rate rose from 13.1 per cent in 1999 to 19.7 per cent in 2009 and 21.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2010.Ironically, the minister said between 1999 and 2009, GDP increased from about $36 billion to $250 billion, while the number of unemployed people increased from 5.9 million to 17.5 million.In 2003 and 2004, Nigeria recorded double digit GDP growth rates of 10.3per ent and 10.6 per cent respectively, unemployment rates were still as high as 14.8 per cent and 13.4 per cent respectively, he said.Dr Shamsuddeen said the largest group of the unemployed were school leavers with Senior Secondary School qualifications, adding that the cause of this was the long period Nigerian youths spend idle while seeking admission into tertiary institutions.
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