Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, has urged the National Assembly to appropriate more funds in the Ministry’s 2025 budget to enable it scale up the performance of key areas of employment generation.
He said the total budgetary allocation of N46 billion, seventy-nine million, nine hundred and sixty thousand, five hundred and forty-four naira (N46, 079, 960, 544.00) for the ministry and its parastatals this year would not be sufficient to attain set objectives.
He said that the fund would be particularly used to renovate, reconstruct, and re-equip the skills development centres under the ministry and its agencies across the country, aimed at generating employment.
Dingyadi spoke in Abuja at the 2025 Budget Defence meetings with the House Committee, and the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, respectively.
A statement by the Head, Press and Public Relations Patience Onuobia quoted the minister as having said that skill development programmes would generate sustainable job opportunities for individuals, which would ultimately promote national economic growth.
Dangyadi maintained that creating jobs through skill development is crucial to achieving part of the federal government’s agenda.
The Minister said: “One of the key priorities of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is job creation, which falls under the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
“For us to achieve this noble objective, we need special funds to renovate, reconstruct, and re-equip the skills development centres under the ministry and its agencies across the country.
“We are aware that many of the infrastructural projects in this year’s budget can be used to create jobs for our teeming youths. However, over 60% of such jobs are unskilled jobs that are not sustainable. Once the project is completed, many of them will go back to become unemployed.
“The best solution to unemployment is the creation of skilled jobs with starter packs, where trainees will set up their own self-sustaining jobs to contribute to the economic growth of the nation.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Senator Diket Plang, stated that the ministry deserved a boost to its budgetary allocation to enable it function effectively.
Speaking, the Chairman, House Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Hon. Adefarati Adegboyega, emphasised the significant role of skill development in the economic growth of the nation.
He noted that sustainable employment programmes, such as skill development, would provide a permanent solution to unemployment, unlike occasional palliatives that only offer temporary relief.
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