Payment Of N5000 To Unemployed Will Be Very Difficult

James Ocholi, the minister of state
for labour and employment, has
revealed that the lack of a database
with a comprehensive list of
employed and unemployed Nigerians
is affecting the process of paying
the N5000 stipend the government
is planning to pay unemployed
youths.
One of the campaign promises of the
All Progressives Congress (APC) is to
pay unemployed youths in the
country and this has also been
reiterated by President Muhammadu
Buhari.
Vanguard reports that Ocholi said in
Abuja on Wednesday, January 20,
that the government was enlisting
the help of experts who were already
working on compiling the list of
unemployed. He added that the
government also planned to provide
jobs to the unemployed graduates.
“Before we got to where we are,
there was no data anywhere. There
is no data of the unemployed. In
fact there is no data of the
employed. It is a bad situation.”
“As I talk with you, there are experts
working on the software on the
various things which we have
discussed with them on how to
capture the details of the
unemployed and the employed. And
for those who are employed, there
are many who are in wrong places;
there are many who are in jobs and
they are not enjoying the job and
who want to have a job better than
what they are doing.
“There is a firm that we have
sourced for, working with the
National Directorate of Employment,
(NDE) right now. NDE has done a
pilot scheme in Bwari and they have
an office in Lobito crescent right
now working in preparatory for a
mega scale on job proffer.
“What it takes to get that data ready
is part of our work. Our work does
not begin when the data comes out
because the data itself does not
employ people.”
According to Leadership, the
government was working on a
Teacher Conversion Programme that
will help identify graduates with
specialisations that can make them
secondary school teachers.
He said the government had also
built skill centres across the country
and was also working on developing
the existing ones.
“So we have decided to do a memo
to the SGF for Mr. President to
galvanize all such centres and bring
them to one fold. Then we can do a
planning on how many each centre
can take for the next three months.
We will look at what is the nature of
the skill that can be acquired within
the period of time, what do we do to
sustain those people that will
acquire the skill and while acquire
those skills what stipends can be
paid to them to keep them in the
training so that while being trained
you earn something. That will
bridge the gap between now and
when they open their shop and
begin to employ labour”.
Meanwhile, the federal government
revealed that only hard working
Nigerians who are unemployed
would be paid the N5,000 stipend
promised by the APC.