The Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Dingyadi has said President Bola Tinubu through his Ministry is determined to reduce the unemployment rate in the country.
Speaking when he appeared before Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, the Labour Minister enumerated conscious efforts by the present administration to reduce unemployment
He said, “That is the key responsibility that the Minister of Labour and Employment is leading with.
“All the skill development programmes that this ministry is doing, we are doing it to fight unemployment.
“This is our major responsibility. And like I said, we are on top of the situation to ensure that we fight unemployment to finish.”
He was however evasive on the statistics of Nigerians in the labour market when the lawmakers asked him to give the figure.
“By way of presenting figures, I don’t want to go into giving you figures that I’m not very sure of. But I want to assure you that we have these figures.
“I didn’t come with them. And we have to coordinate them because all our parastatals and agencies are working on this issue of fighting unemployment.
“So we’ll coordinate and provide our committee with these figures. I know members of this committee are very serious and very intelligent.
“When we bring these figures, you will know whether what we are telling you is correct or not. So please give us a little time. We will get these figures ready for you and we will make them public if you want us to do so,” he said.
“I’m sure the figures are there. It’s only that we didn’t come with them because we don’t know that this question is going to be answered.”
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Diket Plang, in his remarks declared that the increase in minimum wage was a positive indication that the present administration was committed to the well-being of workers in both the public and private sectors.
“The recent implementation of the new national minimum wage, which took effect on April 1, 2024, is a testament to this commitment.
“Our budget allocation which is slightly reviewed upward as against the 2024 Budget Act, will support the Ministry’s efforts to ensure and enforce that workers receive fair compensation.”
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