NDE braces up to tackle unemployment

As part of efforts to tackle unemployment, successive administrations  have  introduced different  programmes and agencies such as Youth Enterprise With Innovation (YouWin), Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), but these have not produced the desired result because, as stakeholders put it, there […]

As part of efforts to tackle unemployment, successive administrations  have  introduced different  programmes and agencies such as Youth Enterprise With Innovation (YouWin), Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), but these have not produced the desired result because, as stakeholders put it, there was no harmonization of these programmes on wealth creation and employment generation.
Unemployment, especially among school leavers and graduates of tertiary institutions, has remained one of the fundamental challenges threatening the economic development of Nigeria.
The desire of the federal government to deal with intolerable rate of employment led to the setting up of the Chukwuma Committee in 1985. The committee was charged with the responsibility to design strategies that will create mass employment opportunities in the country. The committee identified from the survey that the informal sector whose employee profile is characterized largely by low skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled labour, accounted for up to 90 percent of the workers distributed unevenly in agriculture and other self-employment ventures.   The findings of the committee led to the recommendation for the establishment of an employment creation agency by the federal fovernment.
Consequently, the federal government approved the establishment of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) on 26th March, 1986 but its programmes were launched nationwide in January 1987.
The Acting Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Kunle Obayan, said the directorate has over the years positioned itself to articulate job creation initiatives and policies of the federal government.
He observed that unemployment has assumed multi-dimensional shapes constantly determined by the prevailing economic challenges and needed to be tackled appropriately.
According to him, unemployment arises in cases where people cannot find the type of work they were trained to do; some arise out of sudden retrenchment while some people are without jobs because they could not get the type of work they want.
“So, all the training programmes that NDE has are a reaction to specific unemployment challenge. That is why we have skills that are designed to tackle specific type of unemployment or targeted at specific unemployed persons,” he said.
Obayan argued that the NDE has survived for 30 years because it has always adapted to the exigencies of the time, saying, “NDE basic strategies are to give skills to people that are unskilled or to change their vocation and make them relevant to the market needs through skills set such as rural employment promotion which is agricultural skills, vocational skills, special public works which is largely construction skills, and business development skills.”
Obayan explained that the directorate was carefully created to proffer solution to unemployment situation as it comes while it had developed homegrown strategies to tackle any form of unemployment that may develop in Nigeria.
“Because NDE is well positioned, we have found other parallel agencies of government trying to do what NDE do. When they copy these programmes, they even use NDE structures at the federal and state levels because NDE has structures and offices in all the 36 states of the federation including Abuja,” he said.
Obayan said that the coming on stream of parallel agencies did not only divert the focus of the NDE, but was responsible for the inadequate funding of its training programmes.
The NDE helmsman lamented that, despite that all its offices in the states are as equipped as the headquarters,  most of the staffers are idled because of inadequate funding and has hindered the impact of the directorate`s  programmes.
“This also resulted in a systemic increment in the unemployment rate because new organizations that so much money were put in did not have the expertise to achieve the desired impact while the NDE that has the manpower to deliver was neglected. There is the need for government and all the stakeholders in the job creation initiatives to ensure NDE is properly funded to avert witnessing the army of unemployed persons going into anti-social vices,” he said.
He said there are steps to harmonize all the skill-training centres in the country under the supervision of the NDE to give skill acquisition a sense of direction and enforcement of standards.
His words: “There are discussions under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour and Employment to bring in all skill centres in the country that are owned by government agencies. There is no need for proliferation of the centres because that does not help the overall reduction of unemployment in the country. Indeed, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has already spoken about putting up a memo to that effect so that it is approved that all those skill centres come under the supervision of the NDE. This will enable us schedule trainings to all areas where the skill centres are located. Even though we know that these will still not be enough until we can have at least one centre in every local government area.”
Obayan also said that the directorate is embarking on the registration of the unemployed persons as well as key in to the present government programmes on social protection of vulnerable people.
“When unemployed persons come to the NDE, we direct them to go to  the Job Centre where we run checks on the type of unemployment individuals have, determine the barriers to employment and then recommend what they need to do to  overcome unemployment challenge. We now have a set of computers that analyze curriculum vitae, do a carrier matching and profile unemployed persons for a job. It will also do analysis on the skill gap between that jobs that is most suitable for the individual and then determine a training that is most appropriate for such individual. We know that a jobless person that is in the job market does not want a training that will last long. So, we have short-term training that is a quick fix. In a case that some people fall into the unemployable category, hope is not lost for such persons as such people could then be considered for conditional cash transfer.”
Obayan stated that the NDE has a role to play in the implementation of the conditional cash transfer of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, adding, “In the job portal we are planning to register the unemployed persons, every application would be analyzed and select perfect skills for people with precision. It is no longer guesswork. It is a job exchange where people can go for different types of skills training for possible jobs because employers would also be on the exchange scouting for employable persons. When the platform finishes its analysis, it will point out to trainers the employers looking for them upon completion of the training,” he said.
He said the job centre would operate alongside the traditional training centres spread across the country.
Despite the existence of 74 training centres in the country, the NDE boss said they are not enough considering the number of the unemployed persons in the country, even as he said  that  the NDE currently has desk officers in each local government area in the country in its bid to extend training to the grassroots.
“These desks offer explanations to people about NDE programmes. This has helped the directorate to know the skill training needs of communities,” he stated.
He stressed that while the directorate continues to collaborate with members of the National Assembly for the purpose of training unemployed persons in their constituencies, he plans to establish a grant desk in the office of the Director General with the sole responsibility of attracting grants to project execution.
The immediate past Director General of the Directorate, Abubakar Mohammed urged the government to encourage the NDE by looking at its operations and strategies with a view of blending it with its other programmes on employment generation.
“I believe that the NDE has adequate human capacity to spearhead the job creation initiatives of this government. No government keeps paying the salaries of an agency and then ignores such agency in programme implementation. Government must understand the significance of the directorate in tackling the unemployment challenge,” he stated.
While decrying the negative effects of the proliferation of job creating agencies, Abubakar said that the creation of quasi-agencies to tackle unemployment by successive governments would only create unnecessary rivalry between agencies and waste of resources.