Unemployment rate to reach 33.5% by 2020, says FG

Nigeria’s unemployment rate may reach 33.5 per cent by 2020, says the Federal Government.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said this yesterday in Abuja while declaring open a two-day workshop on “Breaking the Resilience of High Unemployment Rate in the Country.”

He said the incessant increase of unemployment in the country was alarming.

According to him, the high unemployment rate of 23.1 per cent, and under-employment of 16.6 per cent by the National Bureau Statistics (NBS) of 2019 report was alarming.

Ngige, who stated that various government social intervention programmes targeted at reducing youths’ unemployment and eradicating poverty had been implemented by different administrations since Nigeria gained independence, said that available records showed that between 1972 to date, about 14 different programmes had been implemented.

He said these programmes included the National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP) and the current National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), which had been embedded in the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020.

He noted that the unemployment rate and poverty levels are on steady paths of growth, indicating high resilience against the intervention efforts.

The minister said that the workshop was aimed at presenting the outcome of some of government’s efforts and the commencement of another phase of the processes.

He, however, called for a collaborative mechanism that would yield desired results while assuring that the recommendations from the workshop would receive prompt and sustained attention.

Also, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr. William Alo, said the workshop was aimed at examining issues around the persistent high unemployment rate in Nigeria.

“This workshop is very important to the Ministry of Labour and Employment due to the direct relevance of the theme to the ministry’s mandate.

“However, the fact remains that the consequences of high unemployment rate in Nigeria affect each and everyone of us as individuals and as members of the Nigerian society,” he said.

Meanwhile, while Mr. Dennis Zulu, Country Director, International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Nigeria, said that unemployment was a major concern to the organisation, especially in Nigeria, Director, Special Duties/Projects of the ministry, Mrs. Martina Nwordu urged participants to to keep to the objectives of the workshop which aimed at achieving the goals of reducing high unemployment rate in Nigeria.