The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has called on stakeholders to support the Federal Government in creating employment opportunities for unemployed youths and graduates in Nigeria.
Director of Rural Employment Department of the Directorate, Mr Olayinka Joseph made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau on Saturday.
Joseph said that there was the need for all stakeholders including the states and local governments to give priority to various employment generation programmes in their respective areas.
“We are also extending this call to Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), philanthropists, public-spirited individuals, political office holders and financial institutions to support unemployed trained by the directorate with the required capital,” he said.
He said that the Federal Government had, through the NDE, been training unemployed graduates, youths and women in various empowerment and entrepreneurship skills.
According to Joseph, this has gone a long way to reduce the unemployment rate among Nigerians.
“As we all know, the issue of fighting unemployment is a collective responsibility; therefore, we have to join hands with the Federal Government to achieve the desired objective,” he said.
Joseph said that the directorate now under the acting Director-General, Mr Kunle Obayan , had embarked on training Nigerian youths in various rural employment opportunities.
He said the directorate was trying to complement the Federal Government policy of reviving agriculture and ensuring self sufficiency in food production as well as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“We have recently trained 600 unemployed youths in 12 states, two states are selected from each of the six geopolitical zones,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NDE had earlier commenced the training of 85 small-holder cooperatives and their officials under its rural employment promotion programme. (NAN)