Fg, Private Sector Collaborate To Create 3million Jobs In 3years

SAN FRANCISCO, March 17, (THEWILL) – Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed optimism that Nigeria will continue to move up the developmental ladder despite the economic challenges currently bedeviling it. He based his confidence on the level of patriotic planning that is taking place as well as the available ideas that are being implemented by the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government.

A statement issued by his spokesman, Laolu Akande quoted the Vice President as making this assertion while receiving an implementation plan on job creation and youth employment in Nigeria jointly packaged by the Job creation Unit of the Presidency, and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG.

“We are in a situation now when the only way is up,” Osinbajo declared, even as he commended the NESG “for working so hard on this project.”

As laid out in the proposal titled “Strategic Framework & Implementation Plan for Job Creation & Youth Employment in Nigeria,” over three million jobs would be created in the country within three years starting in 2016 particularly in Technology, Wholesale & Retail, Construction and Agro-allied sectors of the Nigerian economy.”

In the present year, the plan foresees the creation of over 700,000 private sector jobs, majority of which are expected in the Agro-allied sector, stressing that it is different from the 500,000 teaching jobs for unemployed graduates planned by the Buhari administration.

While expressing excitement and hope regarding the plan, the Vice President recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had set job creation as the central focus of government policy when he instructed that policy planning must address the question, “how many jobs would the policy create?

Acknowledging that job creation might be “painfully slow,” Prof Osinbajo assured Nigerians that the Buhari presidency is addressing the constraints that businesses face including regulatory and institutional delays. He noted that government and the private sector only need to work together and get it right this time.

“I am extremely excited at all that is available. We really have everything we need, we just need to get it right,” he said, indicating the role of effective implementation of the job creation plan.

In an earlier remark, the NESG chairman, Mr. Kyari A. Bukar noted that “NESG is honored to be part of the Committee, and we commit to collaborate with the JCU whilst leveraging our vast private sector network to collectively solve the unemployment challenges Nigeria faces.”

He added that the NESG “have had the opportunity to review the Strategic Framework & Implementation Plan for Job Creation developed by the JCU, with the support of Dahlberg, and understand the urgency in addressing unemployment in Nigeria”.

Bukar urged the federal government to address the sectoral constraints of job creation particularly in the four selected sectors of Technology, Wholesale & Retail, Construction and Agro-allied businesses.

The Job Creation Unit in the presidency initiated the job creation plan while the NESG as private sector players validated it through a joint committee. It would be collaborating with the federal government in the implementation process.