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Unemployment : Stimulate job creation to avert worsening insecurity – MAN, LCCI

Unemployment : Stimulate job creation to avert worsening insecurity – MAN, LCCI

By Charles Okonji

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have jointly advised the Federal Government to focus on the policies that will induce job creation as it is a panacea to curbing rising cases of insecurity threatening the country’s economy.

 

Engr Onyebu

The Chairman of Apapa Branch of MAN, Engr. Frank Onyebu, who regretted that the country’s current unemployment rate of over 33 percent is the second highest rate in the world.

In his word, “This is totally unacceptable. It’s, indeed, a ticking time bomb, a disaster waiting to happen. It is rather unfortunate that most Nigerians have not considered the implication of this sad reality. I think we should all be worried. Note that I’m not just referring to the government, I’m talking about every Nigerian. Yes, everybody Nigerian needs to be worried!

“Do you know the implication of having a third of your workforce jobless? We are talking about tens of millions of able bodied men and women sitting around, doing nothing! You know what they say about idle minds being the devil’s workshop. We are truly sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

“Unfortunately, when the crisis starts, there will be no distinction between people in government and ordinary hardworking individuals, everybody becomes a target.”

The MAN Bos urged the government to embark on economic revolution, stressing a total economic transformation strategy creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurs to thrive.

Engr. Onyebu urged the government to pay special attention to mechanized agriculture, manufacturing and information technology, stressing that they are the drivers of most thriving economies of world.

Echoing the same sentiment, the Director General of LCCI, Dr. Muda Yusuf, stated that the growing unemployment in the country reflects the state of the economy, lamenting that it is difficult for an economy in recession or an economy that is stagnating to create jobs.

He submitted that it is important to ensure an effective stimulation of the economy to enable the economy regain momentum to arrest the worsening joblessness in the country.

The LCCI DG said, “There is a strong relation between investment growth and employment generation. For investment to grow, the business environment must be conducive, and investors’ confidence must be restored. Obstacles to investment growth must be removed. These include the growing insecurity which is disrupting activities in the agricultural sector rendering many farmers across the country jobless. The Agricultural sector is a major employer of labour. The disruption accelerated the rate of unemployment in the country.”

Dr Yusuf pointed out that investors are also faced with numerous regulatory and policy challenges impeding the capacity of investors to create and sustain jobs, saying that most regulatory institutions are disproportionately focussed on revenue generation which meant additional burden on businesses.

“It is important that we also have policy stability and consistency; we need to address the issues around foreign exchange policy and management, especially with respect to liquidity crises and exchange rate volatility. We need to ensure that we create an environment that reduces investment risks and addresses the structural challenges in the economy especially the high infrastructure deficit which has been inhibiting the growth of the real sector of the economy. Logistics issues and bottlenecks at the ports remain very big factors in the job creation equation.

“Above all, we need to fix the investment environment for SMEs. This is the segment of the economy that provides the largest number of jobs and are therefore very critical to accelerated job creation,” Dr Yusuf maintained.

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