The Nation Newspaper

Tag: jobs

  • ‘Maritime loses 3,000 jobs to import ban’

    About 3,000 workers, have been sacked by shipping firms, terminal operators and logistics companies, the President-General, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Tony Emmanuel, has said.

    Emmanuel, in a statement in Lagos, said the sack was a fallout of the ban on importation of some commodities.

    He urged the Federal Government to review certain economic policies, especially those on importation of some items, saying that it was wrong to ban those items without alternatives.

    “As an import-dependent country, Nigeria cannot suddenly ban the importation of principal goods being generally consumed in the country,’’ he said.

    Emmanuel said the policy had sent 20 shipping firms out of the countrybecausev of dwindling balance sheets.

    He appealed to the government to lift the ban on items: such as wheat, vehicle spare parts and machineries, until the nation could  produce them.

    “As a remedy, the union, however, demanded for a review of the ban. Failure to do this, will encourage smuggling, diversion of ships to neighbouring countries, idle ports, retrenchment of workers, unemployment and general loss of revenue to government,” he said.

    He also spoke of revenue loss through under-declaration, attributing this to the sack of some dockworkers – tally clerks and on-board securitymen.

    Emmanuel said the position of the union was that tally clerks and on-board security men be recalled.

    According to him, when the union members were in-charge of tallying cargoes and securing the cargoes on board ships, there were no cases of loss of revenue.

    Apart from revenue leakages,  he said recalling the tally clerks and on-board security men would reduce unemployment.

  • ‘Oil investments, jobs returning’

    The oil sector seems to be looking bright again.

    Multi-billion dollar investments are returning to the table.

    This  may in turn lead to the return of thousands of oil-industry jobs lost to the bust, Wood Mackenzie Ltd, a global energy consulting firm, said at the weekend.

    More than $11 billion of transactions were announced globally in July as crude’s recovery geared up hopes of a steadier market.

    That’s the highest monthly total this year and brings the amount since May to $32 billion, triple that of the previous three months. Deal making will continue to accelerate as oil prices stabilise, the firm added.

    According to a report by Bloomberg, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Statoil ASA were among the buyers after crude’s rebound from a 12-year low earlier this year bolstered confidence.

    Acquisitions will allow the firms to ensure future growth as the industry has slashed $1 trillion in spending to protect their balance sheets during the downturn.

    Millions of jobs in the oil industry have been lost globally in the past year, with expectations for more losses.

    Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources,  Ibe  Kachikwu said more than 300,000 jobs in the industry had been lost in Nigeria.

    “Today, I’m sure you are aware that we have lost literally over 350,000 jobs in the downstream sector. Dealing with these issues will enable us go back to economic sanity where jobs don’t get lost,” Kachikwu said.

    Nigerian oil firms have recorded massive drop in profit and an increasing shift of attention from new investments, and new fields. A classic example is Nigeria’s Oando Oil, led by Wale Tinubu.

    The minister was in China to raise oil infrastructure funds for Nigeria, succeeding in raising $80 billion in potential oil deals. Kachikwu’s feat was lauded across the world, seeing the difficulties in raising oil funds at such uncertain time.

    Principal analyst for mergers and acquisitions at Wood Mackenzie, Greig Aitken, said: “The extreme oil price volatility in the first quarter caused a lot of uncertainty.

    “Activity picked up as confidence returned and companies started looking towards future growth instead of focusing entirely on survival.”

    Exxon, the world’s largest oil producer by market value, agreed in July to acquire natural-gas explorer InterOil Corp. for as much as $3.6 billion to add discoveries in Papua New Guinea.

     

  • Who says there are jobs for young graduates?

    Who says there are jobs for young graduates?

    A media organisation recently advertised a vacancy to hire a young staff.

    Some days after the announcement, I asked the Managing Director of the company if he had received enough responses to the advert.

    His response was ” Just three so far and none suitable.”

    I was not really surprised that despite the large number of young graduates seeking media employment, the applications received were few and none of the three that applied was suitable, considering the requirements in the vacancy announcement.

    The requirements were supposed to be basic skills and experience media job seekers should have, but my experience in helping to recruit staff shows that, like a former minister was once quoted as saying, many applicants these days  are not employable.

    When media vacancy announcements include requirements like the three below, the applicants will definitely be few.

    • Mastery of grammar, spelling and punctuations which can be assessed based on the application letter.
    • Proficiency in digital journalism as well as active presence on social media which can be confirmed by checking the social media handles of the applicants.
    • Web-based materials written by applicants which must be included in the applications.

    I know a number of young and very bright graduates who may meet the above requirements, but many just don’t have what it takes to get hired by especially new companies that need ‘ready-made’ staff who can work with little or no supervision.

    I know some young graduates who have been changing jobs almost at will on the basis of their mastery of new media skills, while others are finding it difficult to convince employers to invite them for interviews.

    Vacancies are indeed not as many as they used to be considering the prevailing economic situation in the country and the changing media landscape, but those who have the required skills and competence have a better chance of getting jobs under the present circumstance.

    With the current high unemployment rate in the country, only the most qualified and competent can get employed when merit is the main consideration for employment.

    My advice to graduate job seekers is that they cannot afford to sit back waiting for employment when they don’t have enough proof of their editorial capabilities apart from their certificates.

    There are enough online platforms to demonstrate their skills, like having blogs, being professionally active on social media and publishing content.

    In the absence of jobs going round the army of job seekers, graduates should be ready to create new jobs that do not exist. More than ever before, graduates have to be innovative and come up with new ideas that can guarantee them employment in existing companies or the ones they can come up with.

    Graduates should have a good knowledge of the industry and companies they want to work in instead of asking for ‘any job’ available when they are seeking employment.

    I know what it takes to search for jobs for long after completing the national youth service. It took me almost a year to get my desired kind of job in 1986, 30 years ago.

    Jobs have always been difficult to get, but the competition has become stiffer. When the going gets tough, only the tough can get going.

     

  • Dangote jobs to stimulate Ghana’s economy

    Dangote jobs to stimulate Ghana’s economy

    Dangote Cement Ghana said it has procured 1, 000 brand-new-trucks to facilitate the distribution of cement products to all parts of Ghana. The trucks, which came in three different vessels, arrived at the shores of Tema Port, last week.

    The company’s Media Relations Manager, Mr. Etornam Komla, who made this known to Reuters, said the company has commenced the process of recruitment of drivers, truck driver assistants and loaders, adding that by the end of July, all the drivers will be on board.

    He said the recruitment was part of the company’s objective of contributing to Ghana’s economic growth through job creation and honoring tax obligations.

    “These are components of the company’s mission in Ghana, which is to stimulate its economy,” Komla said.

    He said the company has also invested over $100 million in the construction of a new plant in Takoradi in the Western region. The plant, which will be a state of the art modern cement grinding plant, will have the capacity to produce about 1.5 million tonnes of cement per annum.

    “This project when completed will further cement the presence of Dangote Cement business in Ghana and is a further proof of our commitment to the infrastructural development of the country and will also enable us to meet the growing demands across other countries in West Africa” he explained.

    Although cement manufacturing remains the flagship of Dangote group’s businesses, the President of the group Alhaji Aliko Dangote has also made foray into oil and gas, investing in a petrochemical, refinery and fertiliser plant in Nigeria.  The petrochemical complex where these plants are being built occupies a land mass in excess of 2,100 hectares. The projects will cost in excess of $12 billion. The oil refinery has a capacity of 650, 000 barrels per day and over 3,000,000 ammonia and urea plants.

    Dangote told Reuters that these businesses will be ready between 2018 and 2019.

    The company also plans to build a 550 Kilometre Gas Pipeline across Nigeria and into West Africa.

  • Conglomerate to create jobs in Niger Delta

    Thousands of jobs are coming for unemployed youths in the Niger Delta region through a business conglomerate, Celtic Pride Group Nigeria Limited.

    The company said its mission is to created jobs for all categories of youths to help fill the unemployment gaps in the Niger Delta and country at large.

    The Group President/Chief Executive Officer of the conglomerate, Mr. George Turnah, spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State at the induction/orientation training for 30 newly recruited employees of the company.

    The Bayelsa State-born Turnah, said the conglomerate is three years old with expertise in engineering, construction, food processing, water bottling, environmental services, event planning, management and delivery, consultancy, marine services, fisheries and aquaculture.

    He said the company would engage thousands of graduates, skilled and semi-skilled labour to work at different stages of the company’s businesses.

    He expressed strong commitment of the group to invest heavily in the fisheries and aquaculture aspects of the conglomerate to play a role in the revival of the agricultural sector to boost food production.

    Turner who formally welcomed the new employees on board, charged them to be productive and abide by the code of conduct of the conglomerate.

    Turnah, who is vast in corporate governance took the new staff through the rudiments of effective running of a corporate entity, memo writing, file opening, auctioning and general administrative rules.

    Speaking on budget control and related issues, a budget control practitioner and President of Ruby and Sapphire Leadership Academy, Mrs.Brayila Awofeso, noted that the success or otherwise of any establishment depends largely, if not entirely on appropriate budget formulation, control and implementation.

    On his part, a Chartered Accountant and Public Policy and Management practitioner, Mr.Elayelagha Ebimotimi, who spoke on internal control, said regular checks and balances on key operations would help the company achieve set goals.

    The Group Managing Director, Mrs. Jennifer Timinipre Turnah, charged the new staff to always be above board and contribute their quota to the growth of the business conglomerate.

  • ‘Dangote refinery, others‘ll create 235,000 jobs’

    The refinery and fertiliser projects of Dangote Industries Limited is expected to create a minimum of 235,000 new jobs both direct and indirect, when it becomes operational in the first quarter of 2019.

    President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote who revealed this also stated that the projects will cost a minimum of $17billion.

    Meanwhile, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has assured the Management of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) of the support of the Federal Government towards the completion of the projects.

    Osinbajo who spoke after the inspection of the projects last weekend, said: “Supporting what you are doing here is not a favour. It is not a favour that would be done to Dangote Group, but is an important part of our building up of the Nigerian economy. As a matter of fact, it is a crucial part of building the Nigerian econom. When people say somebody is building something, they are doing a refinery at Lekki, your concept of that, they way you visualise that, is a structure somewhere. May be a couple of warehouses or two. That’s how you visualise it.

    “And certainly, you don’t think they deserve all the noise and attention and certainly not the money they might have access to. But when you come to a place like this, you fully understand that this is not just only about building a refinery, it is about building an industrial hub, a modern industrial hub. That is an enormous undertaking. It’s a great thing that is being done here. And frankly, I think that we ought to give this place far more attention both as Federal Government and state government.”

    He assured that the Federal Government will do all within its powers to assist and encourage Dangote to realise his dream of building the biggest refinery and fertilizser companies in the world.

    “I am really excited and have been thoroughly educated today. I have always been interested in what the Dangote Group has been doing but I must say that I am much more committed to be a supporter of what you are doing here, and to see to it that in whatever way, shape or form we are able to contribute to this. I was telling the President yesterday afternoon that we would be coming here today, he said “yes, yes, yes, we need to encourage him. We need to encourage him.” I am sure he also felt like look, there’s a need to do something.”

    Earlier Dangote told the Vice-President that the $12 billion refinery would have a capacity of 650,000 barrels a day. He assured that there will be market for the refined products because even in Africa, only three countries have functional refineries with others importing from abroad.

  • 300,000 jobs ‘ll be lost if foreign airlines leave Nigeria, says NANTA

    THE National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies ( NANTA) has said the country would lose about 300, 000 jobs if the foreign airlines stop flying into Nigeria as a result of the $591 million foreign airlines money trapped in Nigerian banks.

    Speaking during a press conference at the NANTA House in Lagos, NANTA President, Mr. Bankole Benard, called on the airlines not to rush in withdrawing their services as the action would further deepen the current crisis which will affect 300, 000 jobs in the aviation sector, both upstream and down stream.

    Bankole said the development was going to affect every body ,the travel agencies, government and the general public, stressing that if a ticket that supposed to be issued in Nigeria is issued in Ghana, the government will lose money.

    He said: “The government is equally losing revenue to neighbouring countries as tickets can be purchased from outside the country and once that is done, the taxes on such tickets will not go to the government through the withholding tax which they would have benefited from such transaction.”

    While calling on the government to resolve the matter quickly, Bankole noted that the aviation industry contributes to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

    Bernad also observed that if the industry is allowed to go down, it will affect the country as it will lead to more job loss like what is happening in the banking industry.

    He, however, informed that the federal government has already instructed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to come up with a flexible foreign exchange policy that will assist airlines to repatriate their funds.

    NANTA boss stated that he is trying to build on what the previous executives have done.

  • 105, 450 jobs coming for youths

    105, 450 jobs coming for youths

    The Eagle Search and Rescue Foundation plans to create 105,450 direct and 500,000 indirect jobs before the year ends.

    Its founder, Mr Sunday Bamidele Ajanaku, who is an America-trained pilot, said the non-profit organisation would achieve this feat through its health/transport project in collaboration with 15 reputable insurance companies .

    “This venture is billed to reduce crime and criminality in Nigeria and prepare them for resumption of duties in their respective state of resident/communities.”jobs

    He urged the Federal Government to support the intervention. “We are aware of the Federal Government proposed payment of N5,000.00 stipends to unemployed youths throughout the country effective 2016.  By interpretation, in one year, 100,000 beneficiaries would have taken N6 billion. If the Federal Government can honour our plea to give us 60 per cent of this single year payment, we will commence recruitment and provide gainful employment for the same number of youths availing them with all necessary training and orientations within three months,” he said.

    He said the General Overseer, The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Adejare Adeboye, and others have pledged to support the initiatives.

  • ‘Investment in agric can create jobs for youths’

    An octogenarian, Pa Emmanuel Osunwo Remi-Williams, has urged the government to tackle youth unemployment by investing in agriculture.

    In an interview, he said the perennial problem of the country is unemployment and  this could be solved through a recourse to farming

    Pa Remi-Williams said the federal and state governments should study the blueprints adopted by the late premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    He said Awo, as the late sage was popularly known, solved youth unemployment then by acquiring vast areas of land in Apoje on the outskirts of Ijebu Igbo, which were devoted to palm tree plantation.

    To encourage young school leavers to work on the farms, he said Awo gave the youth good welfare packages, including salaries. “People were enticed with bicycles, the most senior ones with motocycle. Other areas were earmarked for cocoa and cassava planting. Salary scale was good and very encouraging. Education was one of the cardinal points of the government. Free education was introduced in 1955. It was a six-year programme, after secondary modern school. Most of these youth took to agriculture instead of white collar jobs,’’ he said.  According to him, the government used the money it made from agriculture to build its education programme and build skycrappers, such as the Cocoa House in Ibadan.

    Also, Pa Remi-Willaims said during the Second Republic, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) also used agriculture as  cardinal programme.

    He cited former Lagos State governor Alhaji Lateef Jakande who acquired land in Epe for rice plantation to buttress his point. He said many Nigerians were willing to return to the farms if given the right incentives.

    He said his call became imperative as the country’s economic earnings from its mono-product declines daily, warning that there might be more problems ahead if an alternative was not sought, especially for the youth.

    Since the idle mind is the devil’s workshop, he said the youth should be engaged.

    He however, did not support the idea of giving tools to the young to stand on their own, saying they lack the experience and that not everyone could be an entrepreneur.

  • 500,000 teaching jobs for graduates to open on Sat

    One of the major social investments by the Muhammadu Buhari administration – the recruitment of 500,000 graduate-teachers – will open on Saturday.

    An internet portal, npower.gov.ng, to be launched that day,  will be opened for applicants from Sunday.

    The recruitment is part of the programmes in the budget, which the government said yesterday will be fully implemented.

    The Presidency said: “Other schemes in the Social Investment Programmes will soon be rolled out in the coming weeks. These include the Conditional Cash Transfer that pays N5,000 monthly to one million Nigerians, the Micro-Credit Scheme for more than 1.5 million Nigerians, the Home Grown School Feeding programme that will serve 5.5 million Nigerian pupils in primary school a free hot meal per day this year and the Education support grant programme for 100,000 tertiary students in Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics, STEM and education.”

     Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s media adviser, Laolu Akande, said in a statement yesterday that qualified young unemployed Nigerians interested in the scheme could apply.

    The statement added: “The 500,000 Teacher Corps, nicknamed N-Power Teach on the portal, is one of the three direct job creation and training schemes Nigerians can start applying for from Sunday, June 12.

    “Others are N-Power Knowledge, which will train 25,000 Nigerians in the area of technology, and N-Power Build, which will train 75,000 in building services, construction, utilities, hospitality and catering, automotive vocations, aluminium and gas services.

    “All trainees would be paid for the duration of their training. The N-Power Teacher Corps initiative, which will engage and train 500,000 young unemployed graduates, is a paid volunteer programme of a two-year duration.

    “Unemployed Nigerians selected and trained will play teaching, instructional and advisory roles in primary and secondary schools, agricultural extension systems across the country, public health and community education-covering civic and adult education.

    “Besides their monthly take-home pay estimated at about N23,000, the selected 500,000 graduates, will also get computer devices that will contain information necessary for their specific engagement, as well as information for their continuous training and development. They will keep the devices even after exiting from the programme.

    “The N-Power Teacher Corps programme is an invaluable opportunity for young Nigerians to make immense economic and social contributions to the nation while developing their skills. It will also help to address inadequate teachers in public schools.

    “Also, persons enlisted under the scheme will gain work experience and acquire key competencies through academic and non-academic capacity building programmes intended to improve their competitiveness in the workplace. Their devices will come loaded with knowledge-oriented applications and software that will enable them acquire the skills and capacity.

    “Under the N-Power Knowledge scheme, there are three aspects: Creative, Technology Software and Hardware. These three sub-divisions would will train 25,000 young Nigerians in all.

    “5000 of them would be trained in Animation, Graphic Design, Post-Production, Script-Writing. All of those under the sub-division of N-Power Knowledge-creative category.

    “The N-Power Knowledge scheme also has a technology category in two aspects: hardware and software. 10,000 Nigerians would be trained, and equipped in software development, including web designers, and another 10,000 in hardware expertise, including to repair, maintain and assemble mobile phones, tablets, computers and other devices.

    “Also, the N-Power Build category was designed realising that the presence of a well-trained and highly skilled youth population in any economy has direct impact on entrepreneurship/wealth creation, which in turn leads to a decline in unemployment.

    ‘N-Power Build is, therefore, an accelerated training and certification (Skills to Job/Enterprise) programme that will engage and train 75,000 young unemployed Nigerians in order to build a new crop of skilled and highly competent workforce of technicians, artisans and service professionals.”