By Appolos Christian
In a bid to equip many unemployed Nigerians with employable skills, the Federal Government has initiated a Safety Net-Job for Unskilled Persons.
The Director Special Duties and Project of the Federal Ministry Labour and Employment, Dr. Martina Nwordu, revealed this recently at a National Survey for Generation of Baseline Data on Unskilled Persons in Nigeria at Bauchi.
A statement by the Labour Ministry’s Deputy Director/Head of Press, Mr Charles Akpan, the Ministry decided to embark on the survey in response to the address by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presentation of 2020 Budget where he promised to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.
She however said that the ability of the country to deliver on this promise depends largely on the cooperation of relevant sectors especially the social sectors of which the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment is part.
She classified unskilled persons as young persons in the age bracket of 12 to 30 years with educational qualification in the verge of nil to Senior Secondary School Certificate.
While the younger age bracket of 12 to 15 years are usually found in religious, charity and humanitarian institutions established for the poor, she added that those above this age limit are commonly seen at street corners, market places, motor parks and other dark and dangerous areas of the society from where they unleashed various forms of mayhem at the slightest provocation.
She further reiterated that information on exact numbers of this critical population of the Country, disaggregated by their location, accessibility and poverty status are not well documented.
