FG vows to tackle unemployment in Nigeria
Abdullateef Fowewe
Vice President Kashim Shettima has said that the Federal Government would reverse Nigeria’s high unemployment rate and low labour force participation through the Human Capital Development Programme.
This was made known in a statement by the Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Communication, Stanley Nkwocha.
Shettima while speaking at the launch of Nasarawa State’s Human Capital Development Strategy Document, underscored the need for empowering Nigerians with globally competitive skills, aiming to position the nation’s workforce for success both domestically and internationally.
The statement reads, “The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has vowed that the growing informal sector and low labour force participation occasioned by the staggering unemployment rate in Nigeria must be reversed.
“This, he said, is the impression of an unfavourable society the Human Capital Development (HCD) Programme is designed to avert under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Senator Shettima made the promise on Saturday during the launch of the Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Strategy Document & Gender Transformative Human Capital Development Policy Framework held in Lafia, the state capital.
“Speaking at the event, the Vice President emphasised that the administration’s goal is to empower Nigerians with globally competitive skills.”
Shettima noted that the strategy would enable Nigerian workers to excel both domestically and in the international job market.
He said, “Nasarawa State’s commitment to the Human Capital Development (HCD) Programme, a lifeline for our nation, is built on the collective realisation that enough is enough. Enough of the cycles that have held us back. Enough of the legacies of unplanned high fertility rates and alarming maternal and under-five mortality rates. Enough of our vulnerable populations facing low life expectancy.
“Enough of the distressing data on our education system—whether it is the mean years of schooling, the high pupil-to-teacher ratios, or the staggering number of youths not in employment, education, or training. The unemployment rates, the growing informal sector, and low labour force participation must be reversed.
“This is the dystopia our Human Capital Development Programme is designed to avert, under the mandate of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. For so long, at the National Economic Council, we have debated the ideal nation we wish to build and the pathways to achieve it.”
However, Shettima noted that the quest for a reversal of the nation’s human capital challenges is at the heart of the HCD programme, which focuses on workforce development, education, and health critical work he said the Tinubu administration has undertaken at the national level.
“The unveiling of a blueprint for Nasarawa’s future, he maintained, is a reaffirmation of the administration’s shared belief that the way forward for the nation lies in solutions fashioned to suit the unique realities of each state,” the statement stated.
Shettima said to have regretted what he described as the tragic reality of the ECOWAS region being ranked the lowest in the global Human Capital Development Index, assuring however that “it should not be something to feel disheartened about.
“Rather, it is an invitation for every country, and indeed sub-national entities, to rise to the challenge.
“Every child must have access to quality education, and equitable healthcare, even as the nation’s workforce must be equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in the 21st-century economy,” he added.
Explaining that the government is not just committed to ensuring Nigerian youths acquire employable skills, the VP said the ambition transcends mere local success to empowering them to export the acquired skills globally, competing at the highest levels of the international marketplace.
