The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has said that job creation and youth employment are part of the top priorities of President Buhari’s next level agenda.
The Minister made this known when he received in audience, Members of the Pan African Youth Union, led by Mr. Niyi Oladele John recently.
While speaking, he noted that unemployment was one of the major problems facing youths in Africa and the social vices experienced in the society, could be attributed to youth unemployment.
He revealed that the government had decided to strengthen the Ministry and its Agencies, especially the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), as this administration intends to take youth employment and job creation, as top priorities.
The Minister of State said, “There are a lot of programmes under the Ministry and its Parastatals that are basically aimed at empowering our youths by making sure that they acquire basic skills to enable them survive on their own”.
Festus Keyamo also corrected the misconception by the general public that the Ministry of Labour and Employment provides only white collar jobs to people. He reiterated the Ministry’s desire to equip youths with skills that would make them entrepreneurs and even employers of labour.
He therefore enjoined the Youth Union to generate a data base of youths with skills that could be useful to the federal government to identify, train and empower, to meet the objectives of the Union.
He said government is ready to work and cooperate with the group in job creation and skill acquisition.
The leader of the delegation, Mr. Niyi Oladele John, said the aim of their visit was to seek partnership and working relationship with the Ministry and pledged the Union’s readiness to work with the Federal Government in the area of creating jobs and employment for the Nigerian youths.