FG Introduces Labour Statistics To Tackle Unemployment

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has disclosed that the Federal Government is set to introduce a labour statistics system where unemployed Nigerians home and abroad can apply for jobs in Nigeria.

The minister assured that the labour statistics would be available in two months time.

Speaking at a news conference in Abuja, on Wednesday , the minister said the move was part of the government’s efforts to tackle the high rate of unemployment in the country.

The minister said,“With labour statistics and matching, unemployment can be fought.

“Nigerians in the diaspora, particularly specialists who want to return home can look at the labour statistics to know where vacancies exist.’’

Ngige recalled that the ministry earlier established a labour exchange system for merging and cross-matching labour supply and demand in the country.

“In our electronic labour exchange system, applicants and employers can access the system and decide what to do.

“We do what is called cross-matching and people are gainfully employed through it. This is the facilitation of employment,’’ he stressed.

He continued by affirming that the ministry has taken part in a number of international initiatives and collaborations and that the American government was funding grants for women and children in Nigeria and Liberia.

“America is giving the grant to arrest child labour which is a function of poverty.

“People who ask their children to go to work in mines or in cocoa plantations or send them to hawk wares while their peers are in school are looking for money.

“There are two programmes. One is for five million dollars and the other one for four million dollars to take children away from child labour,’’ he said.