| NDE's
job-creation programme
By Sun News
Friday, July 30, 2004
Recently, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) organised
a loan disbursement ceremony for some beneficiaries of its
job creation programme. At that ceremony, NDE, in conjunction
with the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development
Bank (NACRDB) gave loans to about 420 people who had gone
through the Directorate's skills acquisition programme. NDE
plans to create 73,000 jobs under the scheme.
It is heart-warming to note that NDE is still striving to
deal with the vexed issue of unemployment in the country.
When it was set up several years ago, the objective was to
make the agency a veritable machinery for tackling the monster
of unemployment in Nigeria.
However, it is sad to note that the initial verve and commitment
which the directorate brought to bear on its employment creation
drive was not sustained. It went into oblivion to the extent
that a good many Nigerians are hardly aware of its continued
existence. This was borne out of a number of factors, the
major one being lack of funds.
The directorate was not only poorly funded, it was left to
exist only in name as successive governments paid little or
no attention to it. Today, NDE is a shadow of its old self.
These handicaps notwithstanding, the directorate has managed
to stay afloat. It is in the light of this situation that
its 73,000 job-creation programme should be appreciated.
But considering the fact that unemployment in the country
continues to assume a more alarming dimension by the day,
there is the need for the government agency to redouble its
efforts in tackling the problem.
At the moment, unemployment, like Nigeria's galloping inflation,
is sitting comfortably on double digits. Available figures
indicate 13.7 percent and 15 per cent for the urban and rural
areas respectively.
These figures are disturbing, especially in the light of the
fact that unemployment breeds social vices such as armed robbery,
prostitution and the like.
This state of affairs should compel the Federal Government
to spare a good thought for the agency which it created to
tackle unemployment. Government has a responsibility to revitalise
the directorate so as to put it in good stead to carry out
its statutory responsibility.
The need for a virile and functional employment-generation
can hardly be emphasized especially now that government is
de-emphasizing the over-reliance on white collar jobs. The
new orientation should be towards skills acquisition and enterprises
development which constitute the primary responsibilities
of NDE. Government should encourage the agency to pursue these
objectives with doggedness through proper funding and, perhaps,
reorganisation.
While we expect government to act appropriately in this regard,
there is also the need for our governments at all levels to
revisit the old practice of setting up farm settlements. As
government extension services, these settlements can serve
the purpose of people who have acquired skills in relevant
fields. With facilities already provided by government at
these settlements, beneficiaries of the arrangement can easily
fit into their skills without having to go through the cumbersome
process of obtaining loans from a bank strictly set up for
that purpose.
Government should rise to these challenges now. |
