Employment
By Modupe Adeloye
Ibadan, July 18, 2018 (NAN) A Prof. of Economics, Ademola Oyejide of the University of Ibadan, has urged government at all levels to as a matter of urgency take drastic measures to reduce poverty in Nigeria.
Oyejide who identified economic growth as a critical element of employment, said recent research had demonstrated that Nigeria was deficient in several aspects.
The don spoke in Ibadan while delivering a paper at a two-day Seminar entitled “Employment, Unemployment and Job Creation in Nigeria’’.
The seminar was organised by the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on OVP Policy Dialogue on Job Creation in Nigeria.
According to Oyejide, the Federal Government should evolve, analyse, implement, and monitor policies that will help to solve unemployment problem in the country.
“Nigeria is at a critical juncture. The economy has grown fast over the past decade within a largely untransformed economic structure.
“As well as being over-reliant on oil. The pattern of growth has been both uneven regionally and socially non-inclusive, generating limited sources of new employment’’, he said.
While classifying unemployment in Nigeria, the don identified two types of unemployment, namely adult and youth unemployment, saying that there was the urgent need to check the trend
“New areas of employment, generating economic growth need to be identified urgently. In short, Nigeria needs to begin a process of economic transformation,’’ he said.
Making reference to the economic growth rate in Nigeria from 1961 to 2015 based on Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) records, Oyejide, said “the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) average growth rate and Per Capital GDP average rate have been fluctuating.
He said that the economic growth that could support the employment challenge must have the pace and nature that satisfied a couple of other associated requirements.
“For instance, it must be accomplished by increasing productive employment and productivity growth,” he said.
The don, however, called for development of the agriculture industry, mining and manufacturing sectors of the economy to enable them generate employment.
Also speaking, Prof. Olu Ajakaye, a Moderator at the seminar said there should be government intervention through labour market information that would help to provide data on unemployment.
“This will help to bridge the gap between the Demand and Supply for employment. But for now, there is a disconnect,” he said.
Mrs Adefunmi Maku, a participant at the event, said that the current Nigeria system did not support job creation, saying “job creation will exist when the parameters are there.’’
Mr Kofo Ogundeji, the Secretary Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Oyo State chapter, said unless the country diversified its economy, none of the policies on employment would be achieved.
He said over the years, “we had employed the skills of scholars, arguing that labour creates wealth, if there are no jobs, who creates wealth.’’
Ogundeji advised that all the submissions made at the seminar should be implemented if Nigerians were to get it right.
Earlier in his welcome address, Vice Chairman of the ISGPP, Tunji Olaopa, said the seminar was timely as it harps on the need to build on previous conversation in and around government to analyse youth unemployment.
He said recent findings by the ISGPP showed that weak policy conceptualisation management, implementation and evaluation were major challenges of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
Olaopa said “job creation and full employment were seen as important economic fundamentals and the availability of good jobs was the most important measure of a healthy economy.
According to him, statistics shows that Nigeria’s work force is growing rapidly and will continue to grow over the next 20 years.
“Failure to absorb the large working-age population into productive, former sector is already taking its toll on Nigeria’s social fabric.’’
Olaopa said without aggressive, proactive job creation and youth employment strategies, the country would be looking at social tensions and a lost generation of young people in the country.
“Job creation on a massive scale is, therefore, the indispensable precondition for ensuring that our young people have access to economic opportunities,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the seminar is expected to develop a blue print, which will be handed over to the Office of Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. (NAN)
MAM/GOM/EEE
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Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Ese E. Ekama