Business
AU Labour Forum To Tackle Unemployment
The 9TH African Union Ordinary Session on Labour and Social Affairs opened in Addis Ababa last Tuesday to plan ahead for the biennial forum of Labour Ministers and Social partners scheduled for next year.
The objective of the conference is to provide a forum for ministers and social partners to share experiences and learn from each other on ongoing programmes and activities on labour and employment in Africa.
It would also provide opportunity for stakeholders to review progress made in labour and employment issues, particularly those contained in the 4th Biennial Follow-up Report on the implementation of the Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action.
Speaking at the opening of a 4-day conference, Nigeria’s Dr Olawale Maiyegun, AU Commission’s Director of Social Affairs, said the session was taking place during a historic period considered as a watershed year for Africa, which marks 50 years of OAU, later renamed the AU.
“ The 50th OAU/AU anniversary which is being observed and organised under the theme: “Pan Africanism and African Renaissance’’, is providing us with opportunities to take stock of the key milestones of the past 50 years.
“And also to project into the future on how well we have provided decent jobs, social protection for our people, particularly the youth and women and how we tackled poverty in the last 50 years,’’ he asid.
“It is also an opportunity for us to project into the next 50 years that is by 2063, will our narrative still be poverty or we would have eradicated poverty,’’ Maiyegun said.
The Tide source reports that the conference with a theme “Enhancing the Capacity of the Labour Market Institutions in Africa to meet the Current and Future Challenges’’ is chaired by Namibia.
Maiyegun said the LSAC session would consider the 4th Biennial Follow-up Report on the implementation of the Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action; the Draft Youth and Women Employment Pact, as requested by the 17th Ordinary Session of the Summit of Heads of States and Government in Malabo in July 2011.
He said the delegates would also consider the Social Protection Plan for the Informal Economy and Rural Workers; Communication and Implementation Strategy; and the Intra African Technical Cooperation Platform.
“The session will also work on the preparation of the Special Session of the LSAC which will take place in 2014, and deliberate on the review of the Rules of Procedures of the LSAC.
“The meeting will be briefed on the progress made on the AU Labour Market Information Systems Harmonisation and Coordination Framework, including the recommendation of the 5th Joint AUC–ECA Conference of Ministers in charge of Finance, Economy, and Development Planning.
A briefing will also be done on the AU initiative on the establishment of an African Institute for Remittances (AIR).
Reports that the Ordinary Session of the AU Labour and Social Affairs Commission (LSAC) is convened every two years and it is organised on the tripartite principle basis, which provides a policy forum to governmental authorities, and representatives of workers and employer organisations within the AU member states.
The conference is expected to make concrete proposals on how to strengthen the capacity of existing institutions and regulations to meet current and future challenges in relations to inclusive economic growth, youth’s empowerment, labour market governance and accelerated implementation of social protection for workers.
The conference which had gone into a close session is also expected to elect new bureau members with representatives from the Regional Economic Communities.
Reports say that Labour ministers and experts from the AU member states, Social partner organisations, representatives of Regional economic Communities, the UN, NGOs, Civil Society Organisations and other labour professionals are participating in the conference.
Credit to Nigeria’s private sector rose to N83.26 trillion in June 2026 from N81.04 trillion in May, signifying a positive balance of N2.22 trillion month-on-month.
Year-on-year, the figure represents a nine per cent increase compared with the N76.13 trillion recorded in June 2025. The latest figures come as the CBN continues to balance efforts to control inflation with the need to support economic growth and expand credit to businesses.
The CBN data shows that credit to Nigeria’s private sector increased by approximately 2.74 per cent month-on-month between May and June 2026. Also, the CBN data noted that credit to the government fell slightly to N40.03 trillion from N40.38 trillion. Other assets, net, dropped to N10.76 trillion from N12.63 trillion.
The credit surge signifies sustained growth in lending to businesses and other private-sector borrowers during the month. The rise in private sector credit was recorded alongside an increase in net domestic credit, despite declines in credit to government and other assets.
Further analysis of the report says that compared with June 2025, private sector credit rose by about N7.13 trillion yea-on-year but net domestic credit increased by approximately N1.87 trillion during the month.
The CBN’s relatively tight monetary policy stance notwithstanding, more banks still loaded funds to the private sector within the period. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) held its 306th meeting on July 20 and 21.
The Committee reviewed recent developments in the global and domestic economies, assessed emerging risks to the outlook and considered their implications for monetary policy and retained all rates.
The Committee decided to retain the Monetary Policy Rate at 26.5 per cent; the Standing Facilities Corridor around the MPR at +50/-450 basis points and retain the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) for Deposit Money Banks at 45.00 per cent, Merchant Banks at 16.00 per cent, and non-TSA public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent.
The MPC decision means that credit extension in the private sector will likely continue to rise because of rising confidence in the sector and calls by stakeholders for banks to invest in the private scetor instead of government securities.
