Immigration jobs tragedy: We’ll fight hard to provide the jobs they couldn’t get – Okonjo-Iweala. In memory of the recent ill-fated immigration exercise that claimed the lives of job hunting Nigerians, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has pledged to “fight hard to provide the jobs they couldn’t get.” The minister made this pledge at the Inaugural Housing Stakeholders Implementation Summit on Monday in Abuja. She noted that indeed 1.6m jobs were created in 2013 but an estimated total of 1.8m people enter the job market each year. “The best way to honour the memory of the youths who died during the immigration exercise is for us to work harder to create more jobs. “There is a lot of distress in the country now and people are questioning whether the government has really created the 1.6 million jobs it claimed in 2013. The answer is, it has, according to the information from the National Office of Statistics. “The problem is however that we have 1.8 million entrants into the job market every year. So job creation has not yet caught up with the numbers entering the job market. We are creating 1.6 million jobs vs. 1.8 needed per year. So there is a 200,000 job deficit per year. “In addition, we have a pool accumulated over time, of unemployed people amounting to 5.3 million and a pool of under-employed people (those working but the job is not full time) of 13.6 million. So Nigeria has a difficult unemployment challenge accumulated over years. “So we need to work harder and faster to create more jobs for our youths,” the Minister said. On making housing affordable for low income earners, the minister urged the stakeholders to deliberate and provide a specific number of houses that would be provided as an outcome of the meeting. “This event is not for long grammar. It is about action, it is about numbers, it is about meeting targets and deadlines so that the jobs will be created and the houses built. “We are focusing on housing because this sector can significantly increase the number of jobs in addition to growing the economy. This sector will create jobs for builders, carpenters, plumbers, managers and interior decorators. “I want us to leave here today having pledged to jump start the program with at least 10,000 new house owners or mortgage beneficiaries by the end of the year. With the ratio of 5 direct and 2.5 indirect jobs created per house, this should enable us to create at least 75,000 jobs as a start. Today, we should hear from different stakeholders- the states, the developers, the primary mortgage institutions on how we can make this happen.” She called on states and the FCT to take action as housing is connected to the growth of the economy. “Housing is a very important sector; it’s better late than never,” she said. She also disclosed that NMRC in conjunction with CBN and Federal Mortgage Bank are working to produce a uniform underwriting standard for housing and mortgage in the country. The common and uniform housing policy, according to the Minister will be available by May 2014. Also speaking at the event, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs Akon Eya Kenyi, vowed to work closely with the minister in ensuring that affordable housing are provided. “Our goal is to broaden access to housing finance and significantly improve rate of home ownership in Nigeria. “As the national institutional champion of the housing and urban development sector in the country, I wish to assure you that we shall continue to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to provide the enabling policies, strategies and plans for the realization of the objectives of government policy and promoting sustainable urbanization,” she stated.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:41:53 +0000
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