The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has said that not all youths are entitled to N5,000 monthly stipend, only the vulnerable ones will be paid.
The Minister also revealed that the federal government intends to employ most of the jobless graduates as teachers.
Ngige who spoke at an event to mark the 5th anniversary of Bina Foundation and graduation ceremony of its students in Enugu said “The APC government anchored delivery on three pillars; security of lives and property, improving economy under which employment creation is the third sub-head, and infrastructure revival.
“You can see that employment creation is the main issue. We have heard people say we are waiting for N5, 000. We did not say we are paying N5,000 to all the youth. We are saying it is for the most vulnerable.”
He added that the federal government has budgeted a total of N500bn for social safety needs in the coming year.
He said “Most unemployed graduates would be converted to teachers. The move is equally aimed at boosting the education sector.
“For the social safety needs, we have budgeted N500bn for the next fiscal year.
“We have captured unemployed graduates. We are doing two things; we get those who read Law, Engineering and other disciplines but do not have jobs. We would train them for nine months and convert them to teachers.
“Most of our schools have half-baked teachers. We want to redefine our schools and make them what they are.
“We are also building skill acquisition centres. We have 12 of them across the country. The era of white-collar industry is gone.
“Nobody in Nigeria will be unemployed, people will learn how to use their hands.”