Stakeholders from both public and private sectors as well as development partners Tuesday gathered in Abuja, Nigeria, to deliberate on strategic approaches to creating sustainable green jobs that could also bridge gaps in entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
The one-day stakeholders forum had as its theme: An Alliance for Green Jobs Creation Strategic Approach Towards Large Scale Green Job Creation Linking Entrepreneurship and Skills Development in Nigeria.
In his address, Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige criticised Nigeria’s over dependence on oil, gas as well as wood, stressing that contemporary researches had shown that those energy sources were no longer sustainable.
Ngige who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Ms. Daju Kachollum, said “Nigeria’s current economic growth model is highly vulnerable since it is based on only two major unsustainable energy resources: Wood, and Oil & Gas.”
The minister further said wood and gas were primarily produced through deforestation and a highly unsustainable high rate of natural resource consumption.
Ngige argued that Nigeria faces waves of severe impacts of the climate change phenomenon, such as the rising frequency of climate induced disasters; increased numbers of eco-migrants.
He said: There are increasing numbers of vulnerable communities who are impacted by floods, weather disasters, wild winds, heat waves.
“The current labour market is heavily dependent on the unsustainable wood and oil & gas economy, with significant jobs engaged in collecting woods, charcoal production, transport, retail and bulk trades.
“Obviously, these jobs are unsustainable because they rely on felling of trees which is going on at faster rates than the rate of tree planting for replacement, with rapid desertification of the eco-system, and other associated environmental disasters,”
Also speaking, President Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba and Country Director (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the ECOWAS) International Labour Organisation (ILO) Ms. Phala Vanessa, lauded the ILO for being instrumental to the birth of the initiative ably supported by the social partners in Nigeria.