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Tag: jobs

  • ACCA to help students with jobs

    ACCA to help students with jobs

    The Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) will not relent in its efforts to connect undergraduates to employment opportunities, an official has said.

    Its Head in Nigeria, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Ademola, said this became necessary to prevent present and prospective graduates from being jobless years after they might have left school.

    In a statement, Mrs Ademola said the country is battling with huge unemployment which must be tackled by putting in place proactive measures. She said the body will do everything humanly possible to sensitive students on how they can create employment opportunities for growth.

    She said job fairs, among other initiatives would help students to know where and how to tap into employment opportunities around them. She said through the fairs, students are able to view access and explore avenues to create jobs for themselves.

    According to her, the issue of solving unemployment problems should not be left in the hands of government alone if meaningful progress is going to be achieving in this direction. She said individuals, corporate bodies, states and federal government need to show serious concerns to jobs creation, adding that the development was responsible for ACCA involvement in jobs’ sensitisation.

  • Expert to Govt: use budget to create jobs 

    THE Director-General, Kaduna Business School, Dr Dahiru Sani,  has called  on  the Federal Government  to use  the budget to create  jobs.

    He also that the budget should be used to raise the standard of living and create opportunities for Nigerians.

    Speaking with The Nation, Sani  said  previous  budgets  have  not achieved  positive results.

    He expressed    concern over poor job growth with   little improvement in unemployment over the years.

    He said  a lot  of  Nigerians  are unemployed, underemployed or have stopped looking for work. These he said  should be a priority  for the government.

    He   said   the  nation  faces  the “single biggest threat”  of  increasing  recurrent expenditure   from  surging  legislature and  executive  spending,  which  is   exploding the national debt.

    Consequently, Sani  called for  spending restraint.

    Acknowledging the negative   impact that the energy  crisis   was having on  manufacturing, the  Director-General   said there was a need  for the government  to expand the nation’s manufacturing base and  advance important initiatives  on manufacturing.

    He   warned of de-industrialisation  with   the rate of manufacturing job loss experienced  in recent years.

    Sani  said  there was a sharp  drop  in consumption   growth,  which  should  support  productivity growth.

    Notingthat declining   productivity rate is the core driver of manufacturing job losses, he said  there have not been signs of increased activity for manufacturers.

    The  director-general   said the concerns about the long-term fiscal health of the country persists and many manufacturers have pulled back hiring.

    Sani  called   for  improvements in  infrastructure and services to  reduce supply chain barriers and  contribute  to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.

    He  said  lowering these barriers would reduce costs for businesses and help generate more jobs and economic opportunities for people.

     

  • Lawmaker provides jobs tools

    Lawmaker provides jobs tools

    Residents of Oyo Town in Atiba State Constituency of Oyo State were in high spirits as their representative, Hon. Waliu Ganiyu Alagbon gave poverty alleviating items.

    The programme had in attendance the permanent chairman, Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III and his chiefs; the lawmaker representing Oyo Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. Kameel Akinlabi; the Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Monsurat Sunmonu who is also from the town, lawmakers, local government chairmen, Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board (Muslim Wing), Sheikh Taofeek Akeugbagold, and party leaders and members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the constituency. Praises were heaped on the lawmaker.

    Earlier, the Alaafin had commisioned seven boreholes at different locations and two blocks of three classrooms each at Community Primary School, Irepodun-Araromi Atiba and Aba Otefon. Items such as motorcycles, sewing machines, dryers, generating sets crash helmets, clippers, deep freezers, stoves, cutlasses, farm inputs and food items were distributed to people. Cash donations were made to deserving individuals.

    Commending the lawmaker for the gesture which he described as unprecedented, Oba Adeyemi said that people like Hon. Waliu would continue to enjoy the goodwill of the people, adding that those before him cannot walk freely in the town because they diverted money meant for constituency projects to personal use.

    He said that the town had produced five speakers but the last three before Rt. Hon. Sunmonu could not point to what they did when they were in the saddle.

    He advised other politicians to emulate Hon. Waliyu’s gesture because ‘’the youth of nowadays will not hesitate to vote out those that are not performing; they are now exposed via many means.’’

    The reverred monarch said that he and the lawmaker’s father are childhood friends but they were always on opposing sides until the last election that brought his son in as a lawmaker.

    ‘’I called him and told him that we should come together and stop wasting his money as his son had contested twice unsuccesfully before the last election. We are happy that today, he has made us proud. Nobody has ever done what he did in the history of the town.

    ‘’Those before him cannot come out openly as they have soiled their names. I will advise him to continue with what he is doing.’’

    Commending the incumbent governor of the State, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi, he said he will continue to support him if he is not misled by people.

    He said that with his masses-oriented programmes and respect for constituted authorities, Oyo State is on the course of transformation. In his speech, Hon. Waliu said that he is doing these because he could not afford to fail the people.

    Having contested twice, he said, the experience has given him the opportunity to know what the people want.

    He observed that he consulted the leaders of thought before he came up

    with the gesture.

    He posited that like his predecessors did, he is not doing the empowerment because of re-election but ‘’you must be answerable to your people and that is accountability.

    ‘’If I’m doing this because of re-election, who knows tomorrow. God and the people will decide that,’’ he affirmed.

    Like before when empowerment materials were given to members of the party alone, it was extended mainly to those that needed it but couldn’t afford it.

    ‘’This is just the tip of the iceberg as we are still coming up with entrepreneurial training after which the participants will be financed. Also, instructional materials and career guides will be distributed to schools and teachers in the constituency when they resume,’’, the lawmaker, an educationist who is a Masters degree student at the University of Ibadan said.

  • 1,000 lose jobs in aluminium sector

    1,000 lose jobs in aluminium sector

    NO fewer than 1,000 workers have lost their jobs in the aluminum sector of the economy. More will likely go as the sector continues to battle recession. Tower Aluminum Plc sacked 450 workers and First Aluminum Plc laid off 220 and shut down its operations. Other operators are believed to have followed similar pattern.

    The Group Managing Director, Tower Aluminum Plc, Chief Jinesh Dugad, said the gale of retrenchment has hit the sector, following its inability to produce optimally in the past few years. He added that the sector’s performance has been constrained by poor power supply and policies of the government.

    Dugad said: “As an interim measure to reduce loss, Tower Aluminum have laid off 450 workers in December 2012, leaving behind 70 per cent of the company’s workforce of 1,570. One hundred and ten thousand people may be laid off soon. In addition, all suppliers and contractors will be affected with reduced volume of operation. Our hopes were dashed when a new Common External Tarrif(CET) was released in 2010, which reduced the import duty on extrusions to five per cent from 20 per cent.”

    He said First Aluminium did not only retrenched its 220 workers recently, but shut down its operations.

    According to him, the aluminium manufacturing industry is nearing extinction because many of its operators have closed shops.

    “The few existing aluminium companies are producing below average. While some of them have stopped producing aluminium products, others survive by importing finished products. In the next few years, the industry will die if urgent steps are not taken to revive it.” he added.

    According to him, representations have been made at different fora to the government since 2008 for the review of CET, with little or no results.

    “We stepped up our representations to the government in 2012 through the Federal Ministries of Finance and Trade and Investment, including the Budget Office, the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), as well as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). However, the Minister of Trade and Investments, Dr Olusegun Aganga, has promised to discussed the issue with the stakeholders in Abuja, this February,” he said.

     

  • Govt creates 3,000 jobs for youths, others in Katsina

    About 3,000 jobs have been created for youths, women, disabled among others, under the Federal Government’s Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) in Katsina State.

    The state Programme Coordinator, Alhaji Garba Kurfi, told The Nation that 30 per cent of the jobs were reserved for women, 20 per cent for persons living with disabilities, while the others were reserved for males.

    He said youths would be engaged in jobs, such as road rehabilitation, teaching in primary schools, as well as home management for women.

    According to the coordinator, every local government is expected to select three communities for such projects. He added that the beneficiaries should be between 18 and 35 years.

    Kurfi said the programme was aimed at creating employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.

    He added that it would also prevent youths from indulging in societal vices, such as armed robbery and prostitution, among others.

    The coordinator urged local government authorities to register qualified persons irrespective of their political party affiliations.

  • More jobs coming for nurses

    More jobs coming for nurses

    The preventive and environmental health care management system says a lot about disease control. Experts are of the view that the subsector holds much prospect for nurses and midwives in Nigeria. They say this is the time for such workers to tap the opportunities in the area, writes AKINOLA AJIBADE

    FOR nurses and midwives, a window of opportunities has opened up in preventive and environmental health care system.

    The former focuses on disease prevention and health maintenance. It includes early diagnosis of diseases, discovery and identification of people at the risk of development of specific problems and counselling, among other interventions that could help in averting health problems.

    The latter has to do with keeping the environment hygenic to prevent the outbreak of dieseases, such as cholera and diarrhea.

    Experts argue that there are not enough health care professionals to work in these areas. They said health care service providers, such as nurses and midwives, have restricted themselves to hospital jobs where they work on schedules. They said many nurses and midwives are jobless because of their regimented lifestyle.

    They said the Red Cross, United Nations Children Education Fund(UNICEF) and a host of other international organisations do employ people to work as preventive and environmental health care providers, advising nurses to key-into these opportunties.

    A Nursing Consultant, Larry Obadan, said there are a lot of opportunities for nurses in preventive and environmental health care system, arguing that many countries are showing deep interest in these areas.

    He said: “ The world is moving towards preventive and environmental health care system. The developed ouuntries are showing more than a passing interest in these areas by providing a lot of money to tackle diseases.

    “Also, the developing nations are aware of the importance of environmental healthcare management.These are the opportunities, which thousands of unemployed nurses can tap into to earn a living.”

    He said the field and allied areas could provide jobs for between 500,000 and 600,000 nurses, adding that there are immense opportunities in nursing.

    He said nurses and midwives, who long to work as preventive healthcare officers, should move from house to house to tell people on how to manage their health, while those that are ready to offer environmental health care services need go to rural areas to do the job.

    He said Nigeria needs more than a million nurses and midwives to manage the primary health care system, stressing that there is a shorfall in the number of nurses in the country.

    Obadan, who is a legal practitioner and Labour Consultant, said there is a lot of mis-match in the medical profession in Nigeria, arguing that the development has affected nurses negatively.

    He alleges that doctors are frustrating efforts being put in place to employ staff nurses in Nigeria.

    “From investigation, doctors are employing auxillary nurses and midwives to work for them. They parade them as qualified officers, thereby jeopardising the chances of the trained nurses.

    Besides, the country is battling shortage of nurses and midwives, making it impossible to develop the primary healthcare system,” he said.

    A don at the Department of Nursing Science, College of Medicine at the University of Lagos (CMUL), Prof Boluwaji Fajimilehin, corroborated this assertion, saying the country’s 240, 000 qualified nurses and midwives are not enough.

    Fajimilehin said 136,000 of these are not registered, implying that many are working without regulatory approval. He said the country does not have enough nurses and midwives to cater for the sick.

    Citing data from a private outfit – the Integrated Human Resources Information System (iHRIS) – Fajimilehin said two or three nurses are made to work in a 30-bed ward in the morning, one or two in the afternoon, and only one at night. This, he said, requires employing more workers for the health industry.

    Also, a Matron with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the problems associated with the health care delivery system are enormous and therefore require more hands. She said nurses and midwives are in short supply globally, adding that Nigeria is not an exception.

    She said there are opportunities for people to work as professionals, auxiliary, dental or primary health care nurses and midwives.

    The source said people who have the qualifications would get jobs, in view of the openings in the sector.

    Her words: “There are a lot of job opportunities in the health sector. First, the issue of ageing nurses and midwives have opened up job prospects for people. Secondly, many of such workers are due for retirement. Thirdly, some have retired and need to be replaced with younger and stronger workers. Fourthly, many have travelled to Canada, among other countries, for better conditions of service.

    “The development suggests that more nurses and midwives are needed in the country.”

    She added: “The time has come for people to show more interest in nursing by taking it as a profession. They can do this by studying nursing at the university level to get more exposure on it. Holders of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing are going to have an edge in the labour market over those with only School of Nursing Certificates.

    “People must develop interest in nursing from the beginning, if they want to achieve success. When this happens, the country would have enough nurses and midwives to work with and further reduce the pressure on the labour market.”

    She advised people to go for career talks to know their areas of specialisation in nursing science, adding that each area has the capacity to provide jobs for practitioners.

    “There are various cadres of nurses and midwives ditto job opportunities. Many are unemployed now because the government does not create the enabling environment for the healthy sector. The best thing for the government to do is to employ more workers in the healthcare delivery segment. The Federal Government has not done much in this area. The Lagos State government is trying its best to take nurses and midwives out of the employment market. Once efforts are geared toward the creation of jobs for medical practitioners, the better for their families and the economy in particular,” she said.

    Also, a Nursing Consultant, Mrs Adenike Amao, said the country was yet to comply with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) directive of one nurse to a maximum of 10 patients. Mrs Amao said a nurse or a midwife attends to a minimum of 100 people in Nigeria, arguing that they were being overworked.

    She said Nigeria’s health care delivery system is poor, going by the WHO Report on 57 countries facing critical shortage of health workers.

    She said: “The report indicates that Nigeria’s shortage has increased three times from 44,000 in 2006. This would be the seventh highest shortage of the 57 crisis countries. Giving this, the country has a shortage of over 130,000 workers, a development that is not good enough for a country that is planning to attain the goal of Health for All by 2015. For Nigeria to attain that goal, the government must employ medical practitioners, in addition to the provision of infrastructure for the sector.”

    According to her, Nigeria must clear the deficit first before it can achieve meaningful growth in the area of healthcare services.

    “After clearing the deficit of over 130,000 workers, the government still needs to employ more hands to foster growth. By my estimation, Nigeria would need about a million nurses to achieve growth. The reason is because there are many towns and villages that are finding difficult to have access to qualified nurses and midwives. In those areas, people patronise fake health service providers. This has resulted in untimely death”, she said.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Group to create 5,000 jobs for Northern graduates

    The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) is set to create about 5,000 jobs in the sector for the unemployed graduates in the north, its founder Dr Boniface Aniebonam, has said in Lagos.

    He said there are lots of untapped opportunities available in the business of freight forwarding and trade facilitation in the country which have remained largely untapped and that his group, having identified this, wants to create the much-needed employment.

    To achieve this Aniebonam said his group is seeking partnership with different groups, such as the National Harmonised Traders Association of Nigeria (NHTAN) based in Kano.

     

  • Outdoor adverts, indoor jobs

    Outdoor adverts, indoor jobs

    Be it billboard, transit advert, poster or arena placement, they are all aimed at one thing: conveying messages to the public.There is an upside to them; they have the potential for job creation, AKINOLA AJIBADE writes.

     

    JOB seekers need not lose hope; though times may be hard, they are rest assured of jobs in outdoor advertising, if they are pushful enough.

    An area, with lots of prospects is billboard designing and planting. Regarded as the fulcrum of outdoor advertising, billboard designing and planting come with innovations which help to create jobs for structural engineers and their auxiliaries.

    Structural engineers are tasked with the responsibilities of mapping out the sites where billboards will be sited. They employ certain category of workers to carry out the job. Over the years, they have played crucial roles in the outdoor advertising business and are respected for this.

    From the manual and cumbersome method to electronic and imposing billboard advertising, structural engineers have been creating jobs for people in the formal and informal sector. The former includes fine artists, graphic artists, printers of large format posters, and computer programmers, while the latter are bricklayers, welders, and painters, among others.

    More jobs are becoming available, as companies including banks go into creative advertising to promote their brands.

    With the recent restructuring and reforms in outdoor advertising also known as the out-of-home advertising medium, we can say that better days await job seekers as states now embrace the new generation billboards.

    The states, which have established agencies to regulate activities in outdoor advertising, are as follows: Lagos State Signage Advertising Agency (LASSA), Osun State Signage Advertising Agency (OSAAA) and Oyo State Signage AdvertisingAgency (OYSAA).

    Others are Rivers, Ekiti, Edo, Ondo, Enugu, Delta and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

    While these states are generating revenue by approving and collecting commission on every billboard erected in their domain, they have helped in providing job opportunities for people.

    Experts said the stakes are high for job seekers, given that companies are committing fortunes to it. They said billions of naira are being spent on outdoor advertising which has a multiplier effects in the economy.

     

    The big players

    Media Reach, in a report, said MTN spent over $4 million on product advertising in 2011, followed by Globacom, Etisalat and Airtel, which altogether spent $12.518 million out of $22.750 million budgeted for advertising. The telecos were believed to have spent huge amount of money on outdoor advertising because their products would enjoy better exposure. This could be attributed to the flow of human traffic that would view the adverts since they are strategically positioned.

    Besides, manufacturers of Fast Moving Consumers Goods (FMCG), such as Nigerian Breweries Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc among others budgeted millions of naira for outdoor advertising last year. Industry sources said the development has increaed the capacity of the outdoor advertitising companies, by enabling them to employ more hands for their operations. The sources said each outdoor agency has on the avearge employed between 100 to 200 workers( direct and indirect) in the past three months.

    Speaking on the issue, the Managing Director, Rules Engineering Concept, Engineer Charles Duru said immense opportunities awaits for people who are ready to develop their potentials in the outdoor segment of the industry. The firm specialises in providing outdoor and allied for companies.

    Duru said the outdoor business is not only broad, but provide different avenues for people to showcase their skills when opportunity arises. He said various professionals are recruited to play one or role or the other in the area of conceptualising advertising ideas, planning and designing it to ensure maximum exposure for the clients and the consumers.

    According to him, roles are inter-dependent in the course of providing outdoor advertising services, which implies that many people would be engaged as the volume of jobs increases.

    He said: “It is only structural engineers that were employed to work in the process of providing outdoor services. There are many professionals that helped in production activities. One of these is architects, which help in the designing of billboards as well. Thereafter, architects pass their own designs to structural engineers who make ensure that the billboards stand structurally on the land. This implies that more jobs are going to be made available as outdoor activities increased.”

    Similarly, the former General Manager, Tequila Nigeria Limited, Mr Gbolahan Mosaku-Johnson said newspapers, radio and television advertising have over shadowed outdoor advertising for years, arguing that there is a renewed interest in outdoor advertising by telecom among other blue-chip companies that can spend a fortune in producing good copies. Tequila is an integrated marketing communication outfit providing services such as brands developments, promotion among several others.

    Mosaku-Johnson said many people would be employed either on contract or full-time basis to help in producing outdoor advertising services because some companies are ready to pay a lot of money for such services.

    “This is high time graphic artists, among other skilled personnel must prepare themselves for big opportunities in the outdoor advertising industry. It is projected that outdoor advertising will get more attractions in the next five to 10 years because states government are showing keen interest in the field by setting up agencies for such needs. Now that we have thousands of billboards in strategic places across the country, there would be more opportunities for the job seekers.” he said.

    He projected that at least 5,000 jobs would be created directly or indirectly in a year in each of the 36 states of the federation when the outdoor advertising begins fully.

    “Now mobile outdoor advertising which ensures that bigger buses and taxis are used to promote products/services of companies is on the increase in the country.These advertisements are produced periodically, depending on what the clients pay for. This shows that graphic artists and large format printers would be made to provide more services in the industry. Also, drivers, among other auxiliary staff would be employed for the job. Besides, the workers needed to produce billboards. With this, a lot of job opportunities would be open for the skilled and the unskilled workers in the country,” he added.

    In a related development, Publisher Brands and Fame, Mr Akinwumi Dickson said there are job prospects in the outdoor advertising sphere as companies are showing more interests in it. Dickson said quite a number of outddoor ad companies have increased their operational capital to meet the growing chanllenges in the industry. He said companies now have enough money to execute big projects, as well as employing highly qualified personnel to drive the growth of their companies.

    He said the more the advertisers are spending money on electronic and mobile outdoor advertising, the better for people that would provide services in the industry.

    He advised people to develop their creative skills to meet the growing needs of the industry, adding that the industry is positioning itself to be one of the best in Africa.

    He said: “The industry’s turnover is estimated to be billions of naira. This is a plus for the practitioners, consumers and the workers that would be employ in different segments of the industry. I think the outdoor advertising has better prospects, and this imply that there would be more jobs to do as the year rolls by.”

    He added: “As more as companies direct their outdoor agencies to use more unipoles, rooftops of 48 or 96 sheets, gantries, bridge panels, iconic structures for billboards, there exists job opportunities for structural engineers, electricians, artisans, and even security guards. The prospects of securing jobs are going to be higher, when the economy improves.”

     

  • Mining raises hope of two million jobs

    Mining raises hope of two million jobs

    Mining has enormous potential for the employed, but they have not been fully tapped. According to experts, there is hope for job in the sector. They argue that over two million jobs can be created in the industry, if the government looks in that direction,writes AKINOLA AJIBADE.

     

    IT has become imperative to open up many areas because of high unemployment rate. One of such areas is mining which holds a lot of prospects, after oil and gas and agriculture. The industry, which is yet to be fully tapped boasts of solid mineral resources. The resources include tin, bauxite, iron ore, coal, bitumen, diamond, gold, lead and gemstone, among others.

    Stakeholders say the mining industry has the capacity to create over two million direct jobs in the country, if it is fully tapped. They said millions of tonnes of these resources are lying fallow under the bowels of the earth, as successful governments have failed to give it the desired attention.

    They said the solid mineral sector can create a huge platform for jobs irrespective of the literacy level of individuals. They said the solid mineral sector, more often than not only requires basic knowledge, thereby creating great prospects for employment generation for the masses.

    The National President, Progressive Miners Empowerment Association (PMEA), Mr Sunday Ekozien, had in a forum to showcase the contributions of the mining industry, said millions of unemployed youths can be taken off the labour market if the industry is revived. Ekozien said every state in Nigeria is endowed with mineral resources, adding that the resources would help in creating jobs and further galvanise the economy.

    He said the country has been a dumping ground for imported goods, while a lot of resources that can generate revenue and jobs are left untapped, adding that if the government can revive the sector, it could provide jobs for the teeming populace.

    He explained that there are diffenret levels of entry into the mining business, arguing that people have the power to determine the area they want. Ekozien said mining can be categorised into artisans, small, medium and large scale to suit the needs of investors. He said what is required to be effectively involved in artisan mining is about N1million, small mining N50 million, medium N200 million and large sacle mining N1 billion.

    He said each category determines the number of jobs to be created, advising Nigerians to try and invest in the mining industry.

    He explained that a mining site can accommodate as many investors as possible because there are different lines of jobs to be executed.

    Speaking on the issue, a quary operator in Idanre, Ondo State, Chief Sunkanmi Edunoye, said an artisan miner can create a minimum of 50 direct and indirect jobs, adding that the ability to create jobs depend on the nature of the solid mineral resources. He said a mining industry can create jobs for carpenters, welders, dredgers, bricklayers, transporters and food sellers, among other informal operators. He said formal operators that can work for a mining company include book keepers, accountants and marketers.

    Said he: “Different categories of people are bound to get jobs in the mining industry. While some jobs are seasonal, others are permanent. There are contract and permanent workers. It depends on the level of skills of people that want to work in the industry. Some miners prefer contract workers who would work over a period of time and get paid. Such miners believe contract staff can be done away with, when they do not have enough jobs at hand. This can save them the burden of incurring unnecessary costs. On the other hand are miners, who work throughout the year because they get a lot of businesses. This category of miners keep their staff because they are sure of getting money to pay them.”

    He said all segments of the mining industry have the potentials to create jobs, advising the government to invest in the industry.

    He said a study conducted on the mining industry, vis-à-vis its potential to create wealth in Nigeria, showed that millions of skilled and unskilled workers can get jobs to do if the industry is well managed. He said all segments of the mining industry have the potential to create jobs, advising the government to fund the industry well.

    “Besides oil and gas, the mining industry has potentials to create jobs. Also, it can as well contribute greatly to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Developed countries are generating billions of dollars in revenue from solid minerals. This has a multiplier effect on their economies. We can do the same thing in Nigeria. When this happens, there would be jobs for workers in the mining indystry and other allied areas.

    Also, a consultant and stakeholder in the sector, Mrs Emily Achor, said the mining industry holds great potential for employment generation.

    “There are different channels for job creation not only for geologists and mining engineers, but also for the miners who could be involved in the processes of minerals beneficiation (separation) even if they are not geologists, as well as the mining of gemstones which are used for different purposes both locally and internationally.”

    She said the employment of mining police is also another avenue for employment generation, adding that they will help in checking the activities of illegal mining operations across the nation. Achor said the activities of the illegal operators do not only deny government of revenue through the payment of royalties, but also endangers the lives of citizens through the destruction of the landscape and exposure to poisoning, as was the case with the Zamfara lead poisoning incidence.

    She said mining is a major contributor to the GDP of South Africa and Gabon, and many opportunities still remain untapped in the industry, as even rare fossils and plants can be excavated and polished for exhibition purposes, especially in countries that have never been exposed to the abundant natural materials Nigeria is blessed with.

    The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mohammed Musa Sada, confirmed that “the 350,000 jobs came from registered cooperatives groups, with some involved in quarry and gemstone mining. Because the operatives were licensed, there was an accurate figure of those benefitting from the available jobs opportunities, from minor to major among operators, especially in the chalk-making cottage industries in several communities now.”

    He said the registered cooperatives informed the cottage industry’s programmes, with one programme in each local government, which has since kicked off in several states of the federation.

    “We increased the number of investors in the mining sector due to the transparent manner in which titles are now issued on a ‘first come-first served and use it or lose it basis.’ A total of 2,476 active mineral titles were issued this year, compared to 666 titles issued out in the previous year, thereby significantly reducing illegal mining activities.”

     

  • ‘World needs 600m jobs’

    ‘World needs 600m jobs’

    Hundreds of millions of new jobs will be needed to keep up with world population growth by 2020, the World Bank said in a report that highlights the importance of jobs to development.

    As populations surge in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of positions will need to increase by 600 million over 2005 levels, the report said.

    The global economic crisis poses a challenge to that goal as some 200 million people remain unemployed, including 75 million under the age of 25.

    The World Bank said the most influential development gains can come from jobs that not only provide a source of income to workers, but also make cities function better, connect with global markets, protect the environment, foster civic engagement and reduce poverty.

    “A good job can change a person’s life, and the right jobs can transform entire societies. Governments need to move jobs to centre stage to promote prosperity and fight poverty,’’ the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, said.