The Federal Government has created 750, 000 jobs for youths to close the unemployment gap in the country.
The Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Mr Dasuki Arabi made this known at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum, on Sunday in Abuja.
Arabi, who is also the Chairman, Technical Working Committee on Youth Employment, said the intervention followed an interface with the Nigeria Economic Summit Group.
“We did some research works with the Nigeria Economic Summit Group to look at unemployment in the country and we came out with the policy.
“The summit came up with the idea of the 750,000 jobs that have been adopted by the Federal Government for the youths and the unemployed.”
Arabi said the establishment of Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs was part of government’s effort to provide succour for the unemployed and down trodden before they finally got engaged.
“We are working with the Central Bank of Nigeria and SMEDAN to provide alot of support for the unemployed.
“It is also the reason why the government is introducing entreprenurship at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
“The idea is for youth to be engaged while in school before the time for employment comes.
“As you are working or schooling you are learning a skill, when you come out you don’t have to rely on government for employment.”
He said alot of work was being done to support small and medium enterprises to make it easier for citizens to access the support and assistance given to them.
“The registration of business for certain groups is almost free and is supported by CAC and related agencies.
“These are some of the things that we have done and these are some of the things government is doing to fight unemployment.
“And the bottom of all this is, government is doing quite alot to provide an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive, so they can provide additional space of employment,” Arabi said.
On data generation for proper planning, the D-G said the private sector had been empowered, registered and given license to generate data for a fee.
“We can see that with the privitisation of PHCN, DISCOS have been created, we have vendors selling units for charging meters.
“A lot of things were done for the private sector to thrive, expand and provide support to Federal Government for growth in the economy,” he added.
Arabi said the aim was for the private sector to provide quite a number of spaces for jobs.(NAN)
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