FG, ILO partner on job creation

The Federal Government and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are to partner on employment generation in order to fight the scourge of unemployment and reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, disclosed this during a courtesy visit by the Executive Director and Deputy Director-General of the ILO in charge of employment, Mr. Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, who was on a visit to Nigeria to access the operation of the Global Job Pact (GJP), an ILO project in the country.The minister also stated that such partnership would improve the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).Chief Wogu said: 'We want the ILO to assist Nigeria in the areas of training and retraining of staff, strengthening of labour based-technology, and other aspects that would boost employment creation'.The minister stated that due to the seriousness attached to the issue of job creation and employment for Nigerians, the Federal Government recently earmarked about N50 billion to solve the problem of unemployment which the National Assembly has also acknowledged as mandatory.For the government to actualise this, the minister added that it had finalised the process of creating a data base of unemployed Nigerians in all the 774 local government in the country.The visiting ILO Executive Director, Mr. Salazar-Xirinachs, told the minister that the team was in Nigeria to help the country solve the employment challenges.He said the ILO would support Nigeria in the area of capacity building for the ministry staff, monitoring policies to see the progress the country had made in its employment policies.The ILO team is in Nigeria to hold consultations with the Nigerian government and multi-lateral development agencies to upscale plans and activities aimed at preparing pro-employment rich policies capable of enhancing the creation of decent jobs in the country.
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