Nigeria’s unemployment rate hits 33.5% by 2020 — FG

The federal government has said Nigeria’s unemployment rate is expected to reach 33.5 per cent by 2020.

Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige said this while declaring open a two-day workshop on “Breaking the resilience of high unemployment rate in the country” Thursday in Abuja.

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

He stated that the high unemployment rate of 23.1 per cent and underemployment of 16.6 per cent by the National Bureau Statistics (NBS) of 2019 report was alarming.

“It is a worrisome status as the global poverty capital (World Bank, 2018); and concomitant high prevalence rate of crimes and criminality, including mass murders, insurgency, militancy, armed robbery, kidnapping and drug abuse, among others.

“As if this situation is not scary enough, it is projected that the unemployment rate for this country will reach 33.5 per cent by 2020, with consequences that are better imagined, if the trend is not urgently reversed.

“It is a thing of joy to note that Nigeria has not been resting on her oars over the years in terms of dedicated efforts to curb the unemployment problem,” he said.

Ngige said various government social intervention programmes targeted at reducing youth unemployment and eradicating poverty were implemented by different administrations since Nigeria gained independence.

He further said available records showed that between 1972 to date; about 14 different programmes were implemented.

Ngige listed the programmes to include the National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP), implemented between 1972 and 1973.

The minister said others included the current National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) which he said, hadn’t been ongoing since 2017, but embedded in the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020.

He said the unemployment rate and poverty levels were on steady path of growth, indicating high resilience against the intervention efforts.

The minister wondered why some of the intervention efforts were not yielding expected results.

“What is government and other stakeholders not doing right? What changes are needed in the policies, plans and strategies? What action areas need priority attention? What roles should different stakeholders play and what other options are not being exploited?

“Why do we employ expatriates for jobs Nigerians can do or why can´t Nigerians do these jobs? Why do we have deficits in housing, water, sanitation, food, entertainment facilities, health care, and education, among others?

“How do we deploy our population of productive age to fill the skills gaps needed for our national development? How do we break the resilience of high unemployment rate in the country?”

He said these were some of the questions that triggered new thoughts and concepts that led to series of activities that preceded the workshop.

Ngige said the workshop was aimed at presenting the outcome of some  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.

Permanent Secretary Ministry of Labour and Employment William Alo, said the workshop was aimed at examining issues around the persistent high unemployment rate in Nigeria.

Leave a Reply