»… Sets up committee on job creation

The Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation Initiatives, Josephine Washma, has hinted that the Federal Government intends to conduct a census of unemployed persons in the country early 2013. Washma, who spoke to Daily Sun at an end of year dinner party, organized by the management of Premier Petroleum Company Limited, in Abuja, said the new survey, which will be carried out nationwide, will form the basis for the implementation of job creation initiatives of government.“We are embarking on a new unemployment survey, in conjunction with the National Bureau of Statistics, to update the existing data base. We believe that NBS already has the structures to ensure a successful survey,” she said. According to the Special Assistant, the issue of unemployment cannot be properly addressed without a reliable data base, adding that proper job planning requires the knowledge of the number of the unemployed.

“So until we know how many persons are unemployed, how many are skilled, the number that are unskilled and how many of them can be given training upgrade to improve their performance. “What has been done before was a general survey but we want to segment that do as to enable us to direct efforts at those areas that are of critical importance,” she added. Speaking on the renewed effort by government to tackle unemployment crisis in the country, Washma said President Jonathan has set up a standing Committee on Job Creation to chaired by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Nwogu. She said the committee which is to be inaugurated soon will drive the President’s intervention initiatives aimed at addressing joblessness among the youths in country. She said there will be a job creation musical show coming up early next year in conjunction with local and foreign entrepreneurs.“It is something we should all look up to and give a chance to see how it tries to solve the unemployment problem in the country and by extension the issue of insecurity, ” she said.

The Presidential aide said the committee will try in the interim to build on the unemployment data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and to move on to conduct unemployment surveys. She said NBS is also a member of the committee.“There are various employment generation programmes being ran by government agencies but what we need to do is to reassess such initiatives and to see if they actually, adding value or need to be restructured in certain ways to fit into the present expectations,” she said. “Let me say that the issue of unemployment has also to do with unemployable, that is the fact that a lot of our school leavers do not possess the require skills to attract employers of labour. Their were CVs that I could not present even to traders in the market. So we are engaging on consultants that will help train these school leavers on how to prepare a resume because resume is the first step to securing a job. It is your marketing/selling point because the applicant might not be physically present when his application is being discussed, ” she said

Source:http://sunnewsonline.com/new/business/fg-to-conduct-census-of-jobless-nigerians-in-2013/

Sure, they would be amazed at what thier results would be as many Nigerians who are currently underemployed would also be included in the survey.

Well; I pray it will not be just to create a database and quote statistics of the percentage of the unemployed in this nation. Again; will the government be proactive in the issue of job creation or economic empowerment for the citizenry

Nig.!!!