Youth Employment: FG Targets 43 Free Trade Zones

The Federal Government says it will create more opportunities for youth employment as a means of checking youth restiveness and other vices in the country.
Managing Director, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, who gave the assurance while speaking in Lagos during a breakfast forum tagged, “Non-Oil Exports: Situation Report and Way Forward”, organised by the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, said it was part of the Federal Government’s commitment toward ensuring eligible Nigerians were gainfully employed across the country.
According to Prof. Adesugba, part of measures put in place to achieve this, will be the creation of 43 Free Trade Zones across the nation.
He explained that the trade zones would create employment opportunities and reduce youth restiveness in Nigeria. This, he stated, will ensure that the younger generations contributed meaningful to nation building.
“The free trade zone as well as special economic zones provide the panacea to reinvigorate the non-oil sector in the face of dwindling and unstable revenue from oil, rising demand from foreign exchange, insecurity, external debt, etc”.
Adesugba, who was represented by an Assistant Director in the agency, Mr Augustine Onyekwelu, noted that, “in these trying times of youth restiveness, the free trade zone is a veritable tool to tackle the problem of unemployment in addition to improving exports of non-oil products”.
Also speaking, President of the Chamber, Dame Adebola Williams, expressed concerns bordering on the over-dependence on crude oil exports by Nigeria.
She, therefore, urged the federal government to give diversification of the nation’s economy more priority.