Following the mandate given by President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Economic Management Team to ensure that unemployment is reduced to the barest minimum, members of the team on Wednesday converged in Abuja to brainstorm on the report submitted by the newly constituted committee on job creation.
The NEMT, chaired by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, had taken the issue of unemployment in the country as a priority, especially as regards the country’s quest to entrench inclusive growth in the nation‘s economy.
The meeting had in attendance key members of the country‘s economic management team, including the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman; Minister of Education, Prof Ruqaytatu Rufai; Minister of Agriculture Prof Sheikh Abdullah; and the Director General, Security and Exchange Commission, Ms Arunma Oteh.
Others in attendance included the Minister of Water Resources Mr. Obadiah Ando; D-G, Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu; Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Sarah Alade, and Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Prof. Kassey Garba.
Aganga set the tone of the meeting, when he told the audience that the country needed to create jobs for its people, especially the youth.
”We are a country of over 140 million people, with an overall unemployment rate of 19.7 per cent as at December 2009. The rate of unemployment is highest in the 15 to 24 year old age group at 41.6 per cent, and it is 17 per cent in the 25 to 44 years old age group,” he said.
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