Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity is collaborating with International Labour Organisation (ILO) to review and update the National Employment Policy in line with national and global economic trends.
Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, CON, stated this in Abuja today, while declaring open a Training Workshop on “The National Employment Summit: Challenges of Implementation” organized by the Labour Ministry.
The Minister who was represented at the Workshop by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Clement Illoh, noted that the purpose of the workshop was to discuss issues of unemployment and job creation in Nigeria.
He added that the main objective of the training workshop was to create a platform for reflecting on the outcomes of the National Employment Summit held in April 2009 “and to assess progress in implementation of those outcomes”.
According to Chief Wogu, the Ministry has strategically positioned itself through capacity building to achieve the mandates of promoting decent and productive employment through the following measures of inclusive economic growth:
Public employment services;
Enhancing inspection and enforcement services to effectively monitor and
enforce compliance with extant labour legislations;
Skills development and certification;
Productivity enhancement;
Strengthening social security and the institutional capacities of the departments for efficient service delivery.
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The workshop is also aimed at building the competences that would enable them contribute constructively to the Ministry’s drive towards achieving the milestones contained in the National Action Plan on Employment Creation (NAPEC),” he pointed out.
The Minister charged the workshop to come up with resolutions that would be implementable to reinforce the nation’s collective will and commitment to work.
He expressed concern that young people were mostly the victims of unemployment and joblessness now constituting a serious threat to the stability of the nation and the African continent.
“This raises the urgency for us as Labour Officers to review strategies and plans aimed at mitigating the impact of unemployment on our society,” Chief Wogu stated.
In her remarks, the Ministry’s Director of Employment and Wages Department, Mrs. Jessica Okpuno indicated that the National Action Plan on Employment Creation (NAPEC) document, being one of the outcomes of the 2009 Employment Summit, identified eleven (11) key sectors with high potentials for job creation and mapped out a framework for performance evaluation and monitoring of implementation in the different sectors.
She stated that the NAPEC document was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for incorporation into the nation’s development plan, adding that the ongoing workshop was set to examine the challenges of its implementation and come up with recommendations to be integrated into the National Employment Policy (NEP), currently being reviewed by the Ministry with the support of the ILO.
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