Presidential Research & Communications Unit

Determined to confront the growing rate of youth unemployment in the country, the Federal Government has inaugurated a steering committee on employment generation
Membership of the steering committee is drawn from the office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Ministries of Labour and Productivity, Youths Development; Commerce and Industry; Finance; the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS); the Office of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER).

The Minister of National Planning and Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission [NPC], Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, who performed the inauguration of the committee in Abuja on Tuesday April 14, said that the Steering Committee on Employment Generation was being set up to:

• Examine the causes of the paradox of co-existence of high growth rates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with persistent high levels of unemployment;
• Identify the major causes of high unemployment in Nigeria;
• Propose appropriate strategies towards improving skills development and productivity of the labour force; and
• Propose short, medium and long-term measures aimed at boosting employment creation.
The minister lamented that though the country's average GDP growth rate stood at about seven per cent for the past six years, there was still a general perception that the high rate has not translated into commensurate employment.
According to him: "The National Planning Commission in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, the NISER, the Federal Ministry of Labour, and the World Bank, is working actively to bridge the data deficit on the employment situation in Nigeria. As part of this effort, a comprehensive survey on employment situation in Nigeria will be undertaken. It is expected that the results of this survey will provide vital statistics in understanding the size, nature and characteristics of the unemployment situation in Nigeria."

The committee, which is expected to hand in its report on employment generation in June while report on unemployment survey is expected December it hopes would generate a million jobs for youths yearly with the implementation of the National Youths Employment Action Plan (NIYEP) for the period 2009 to 2011.

The steering committee is also to generate employment data and opportunities with a view to reducing unemployment and poverty in Nigeria.