The Director-General, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, has said one of the major causes of unemployment in Nigeria was the absence of courses in job creation in the nation’s universities.
He said he would resist anyone within or outside the directorate who constitutes a stumbling block or attempts to frustrate the lofty goals of prioritising training as part of its agenda to surmount the unemployment in the country.
Speaking while addressing members of the Executive Management and State Coordinators of NDE at a capacity building training in Kaduna, he explained that his directorate has done creditably well in its aspiration to create jobs for all Nigerians.
He said, “It is noteworthy that the path to effective and efficient employment generation, wealth creation and poverty alleviation is strewn with daunting and seemingly insurmountable obstacles which tend to discourage even the most incurable optimists.”
He added that this is even made more difficult due to the fact that there is no discipline in our tertiary institutions that has a department or faculty of Job creation.
The director-general of NDE said though the NDE has continued to discharge its mandate of generating employment, creating wealth and alleviating poverty, in Nigeria, it is still challenged by the fact that, as a pioneer institution in job generation, without any precedent to follow or copy, its personnel were recruited without sufficient consideration for the specialised nature of the task expected of the NDE.
Consequently, he added that the management realised the imperative for training and re-training NDE personnel to acquire the appropriate skýlls, knowledge and right attitude to enhance productivity and efficiency so as tÍ meet the special needs of operations of the directorate as well as the dynamic trend of unemployment.
He said the NDE Management would under his watch; consistently address the issues of training and retraining of employees within the limitations imposed by the dearth of funds.
Fikpo explained that the art of his training and partnership building agenda include, seeking the input of experts in the employment arena in designing employment schemes in emerging demand-driven skills for NDE to remain relevant in the face of challenges of globalisation and new knowledge and technologies.
He, however, vowed to welcome onboard anyone, within and without, the NDE who shares his aspirations and would help achieve them, stressing that he would if need be equally resist anyone who stands as a stumbling block to frustrate the realisation of the goals set for the organisation.