Amid cries of the unemployment rate in Nigeria, the country wishes to create 19 million jobs annually to fight against the rate as said by, Doyin Salami, chair of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), said on Tuesday.
Salami said Africa’s biggest economy requires 19 million jobs every year to narrow its yawning unemployment gap. Currently, the country is not doing well economically and thousands of people are drowning in poverty hence the need for job creation.
At a webinar arranged by the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council and Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Professor Salami said: “Right now, Nigeria’s economic challenge is a very significant and potentially severe one. Yes, I know our economy hasn’t performed well; we have seen so far this year a contraction in the economy, and prospects are that for the rest of the year, the economy will continue to contract.”
“If Nigeria’s economy is going to grow, investment is going to be at the heart of that growth. Up until now, our attention has typically been focused on the Federal Government especially in terms of the balance of its recurrent and capital spending,” continued Salami.
According to the National Bureau of statistics reported in the August Labour Force Statistics August, 17 million people equivalent to 78% of Nigeria’s unemployed population lost their jobs between 2014 and 2020.
To make a meaningful progress, Nigeria seeks for investments that will not fall over the next decade below 25 to 20%. The investment is going to be the fundamental catalyst for growth. Organisations and firms have been resorting to job-cutting measures to lessen the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on business and the redundancy rate could touch 30% before then end of this year.
