The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, has urged the National Employment Council to create more sustainable and efficient ways of generating jobs to absorb unemployed youths in Nigeria.
Ngige made this known in a statement by Mr Samuel Olowookere, the ministry Director of Press on Thursday in Abuja.
The minister said the job creation efforts of the Federal Government had yielded the much-anticipated results and taken countless youths out of unemployment.
“I am asking members of the employment council to put on their thinking caps so that they can fashion out ways of job creation, to give us something new.
“The ministry has affirmed that Nigeria can no longer depend on proceeds from crude oil as the mainstay of generating employment but as a catalyst for other employment generating sectors.
“Although our country is out of recession, we must not go back to be depending on crude oil,’’ he said.
Ngige said the government had established programmes such as N-power and Anchor Borrowers programmes as part of the initiatives to reduce unemployment in the country.
The minister said the job creation efforts of the Federal Government had yielded positive results.
“The results are out there for all to see and experience. The impact is out there and the lives that have been touched are speaking out continuously.
“We will keep improving, it is part of the responsibilities of the national employment council to see to it, that all employment creation initiatives of the present administration are institutionalised and sustained.’’