The Nigeria Youth Workers Association has commended the Senate for calling for a state of emergency on unemployment in Nigeria. The group said it is not only timely but has become necessary as most interventions by the government has not made meaningful impact.
Correspondent Habidah Lawal reports that the Nigerian Senate had declared a state of emergency on the provision of employment to Nigerian youth.
The Senate had also asked the federal government to initiate a sustainable unemployment fund for the payment of living stipends to unemployed Nigerians until such persons secure employment.
Currently, millions of unemployed Nigerians do not get any kind of benefits from the government. But the federal government has initiated programmes like the N-Power to reduce the number of unemployed in a country where the unemployment rate was 23.1 percent by the third quarter of this year.
The youth workers association, said the call for a proactive approach to tackling unemployment is imminent. They believed that the government interventions and youth programmes have not addressed the major challenges of unemployment
The Youth Association believes revitalizing existing industries, building new ones, and providing a conducive and enabling environment for the private sector to build more industries, would also go a long way in reducing h the present rate of unemployment in Nigeria.