the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, yesterday reiterated Federal Government’s commitment to implenting the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
He also said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figure showing rise in the unemployment rate does not translate to job losses.
The minister was confident that as the economy continues on its upward trajectory, having come out of recession, the country will see the unemployment figures coming down. This confidence, he said, is due to the strong focus government has shown in implementing the investor, and job creation friendly policies and programmes of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
Udoma said the increase in the unemployment numbers is not because jobs have not been created by government but due to the rate of new job creation lagging behind the rate of new entrants into the job market. He said that, as is generally known, employment growth usually slows down during a recession and takes some time to recover.
However, he gave an assurance that government is working hard to ensure that many more jobs are created so that the rate of job creation runs much faster than the rate of new entrants to the job market.
Fielding questions from journalists and members of the public during the 2019 Budget Proposals breakdown session in Abuja, Udoma stated that an examination of the NBS numbers actuallyshow that the Buhari administration has a positive net job creation record of 1,640,398.
This is exclusive of the 11.1 million persons that the NBS classifies as people who do some form of work but are considered to have worked too few hours to be officially considered as employed, he added.
Over the next year Nigerians should expect to see a large increase in job opportunities and a consequent reduction in the overall rate of unemployment, the Minister stated.
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