The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NDE

  • NDE boss assures of jobs

    NDE boss assures of jobs

    Director-General, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mohammed Abubakar, has assured that the agency will intensify efforts at creating jobs for the unemployed, this year.

    He pledged to work harder to reduce the lingering unemployment bedeviling the country, adding that Nigeria will get value for money allocated to his directorate. He said the performance of the agency is tied to the provision of funds by the Federal Government.

    On his assessment of the performance of NDE in 2013, he maintained that Nigerians should scrutinise the activities of the job-creation agency and ask questions.

    He said: “I want to assure Nigerians that we are going to give value for money. The funds that are channeled to our Directorate, we will make sure that there is value for it.

    “We are in line with our policy. We have given value for the money allocated to us. We invite Nigerians to scrutinise us and see what we have performed and relate it with the resources at our disposal.”

  • NDE unveils entrepreneurship scheme

    NDE unveils entrepreneurship scheme

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has introduced a new programme – the Advanced Entrepreneurship Development Programme (A-EDP) – designed to prepare its trained beneficiaries to access enhanced micro credit.

    A-EDP, which was unveiled by the Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, is to ensure that beneficiaries do not only get paid to get trained, but also receive capital for the skills and trades they have learnt.

    He lauded the Federal Government’s policy of inclusive growth, part of which, he explained, is aimed at creating employment and other economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable people in the society.

    NDE is a collaborative partner in the implementation of the  skills for job (S4J) initiative  under the World Bank assisted Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), adding that its operation is designed to grant poor families access to increased opportunities for youth employment and other social services. He stressed that sustained livelihood of the poor can effectively be achieved through skill acquisition.

    He said NDE has in the last one and half years, recorded a total of 145,183 beneficiaries within the platform of the vocational, agricultural, entrepreneurial and transient jobs training segment.

  • NDE distributes self-employment packs to Akwa Ibom youths

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has distributed self-employment packs to 100 youths in Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom.

    They include ovens, electrical tools, sewing machines, computers, generators, hair dryers and wheel barrows.

    NDE state Coordinator, Mrs Patience Osunkwo, said at Upenekang at the weekend that the beneficiaries were trained in carpentry, hair dressing, computer application, electrical installation and barbing, among others.

    She said the training, which lasted for six months, was at the directorate’s School on Wheels Training Scheme.

    She said: “The school on wheels adequately equips youths to set up and run businesses in their chosen fields.’’

    According to her, the beneficiaries received resettlement packages, according to their chosen trades.

    She urged the beneficiaries to use the skills to multiply wealth and reduce poverty in their communities.

    The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Adasi Ubulom, said the programme would provide the beneficiaries and their dependants with the means of livelihood, adding that it would remove them from criminal activities.

    The commissioner said the programme would also help the beneficiaries to avoid being used as thugs during elections, urging other local governments to follow embrace the training.

    He advised the beneficiaries to regularly update their knowledge to keep abreast of developments in their chosen fields.

  • NDE distributes N2.6m kits

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Nasarawa State has distributed starter kits to 22 graduates of its Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme.

    The NDE Coordinator, Mr Monday Dalyop, said in Lafia, the state capital that the tools worth N2.6 million, are to enable the graduates to establish their workshops.

    “There is high rate of unemployment and the Federal Government is doing its best to reduce the rate to the barest minimum.

    “Most Nigerian youths do not have the requisite skills and the scheme is designed to reduce the rate of unemployment,” he said.

    Dalyop advised the beneficiaries to use the tools for the purpose it was meant.

    The NDE Director-General, Malam Abubakar Mohammed, urged the beneficiaries to justify the government huge investment on the programme.

    One of the beneficiaries, Mr Sunday Audu, thanked the Federal Government for the gesture, and call for its sustenance.

    Items distributed are five computer sets, four sewing machines, nine big generators, a refrigerator and a gas cooker.The others include a printer, catering utensils, hair drier, beads stringing, leather works and GSM maintenance tools, among others.

    Also, in Kano, NDE said it had acquired and rehabilitated 48 skills acquisition centres in 16 states.

    Its Director-General, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed, stated this at the disbursement of resettlement equipment to graduates of National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS) training programme of the directorate.

    He said the centres, which had since started operations, were rehabilitated in collaboration with the Millennium Developmet Goals(MDGs) office to provide standard training to unemployed youths.

     

     

     

     

    Mohammed, represented by a Director, Malam Lawal Kuki, said the NDE was currently rehabilitating additional skills acquisition centres in Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kwara, Oyo states and the FCT.

    He said the decision to provide the graduates with resettlement tools was aimed at preventing them from wasting their skills and relapsing back into the unemployment market.

    “This will also enable the directorate to test skills competence acquired over the period of their training.

    “The resettlement scheme serves as a launch pad for building entrepreneurs who have no immediate access to start up capital’’, he said.

    He reaffirmed the readiness of the directorate to enter into partnership with corporate individuals and organisations as well Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to fight against unemployment in the country.

    Earlier, the NDE Coordinator in the state, Alhaji Isa Abdu, warned the beneficiaries against selling the materials.

    ‘‘If you use the equipment, you will not only be gainfully employed but will equally be employers of labour,” he said.

     

  • NDE to partner private sector on youth employment

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is to collaborate with the private sector  to create jobs for youths.

    NDE’s Zonal Coordinator, South-south Zone, Don Umoru, told The Nation that one objective of the agency is to create avenues for employment for the teeming unemployed youth, saying that the Southsouth region has viable natural resources, and that there is need to create employment in the area.

    He said the body rose to the challenge of enhancing effective collaboration in the fight against unemployment in the zone, adding that the agency is collaborating with some agencies in the provision of credit to trained beneficiaries of its initiatives to make them self-reliant. He identified the Bank of Industry (BoI), Bank of Agriculture (BoA) and microfinance banks as some of its partners.

    He explained that the NDE programme is designed to make youths acquire skills that would make them to be self-employed, stressing that NDE is partnering with the states and local governments to recruit unemployed youths.

    “In the last 25 years, the NDE has championed the cause of mass job creation through skills acquisition in vocational, agricultural, entrepreneurial/business skills, as well as transcient job opportunities. As at the end of 2011/2012, over three million unemployed persons have been put to gainful employment through the various programmes of the directorate.

    “Over the years, the NDE, apart from assisting young Nigerians to become self-employed in diverse fields, has equally shown a lot of commitment towards supporting the new businesses thus created,” Umoru said.

  • Govt urged to create jobs

    Govt urged to create jobs

    The Federal Government has been urged to provide employment opportunities for the youth through the establishment of cottage industries in the country.

    The Medical Director of Rabban Medical Centre, Mosan Ipaja Lagos Dr Raphew Abayomi Balogun gave the advice as chair of the inauguration of Westland Hotels and Suites Limited, Ijegun in Igando/Ikotun Local Council Development area of Laos State.

    He said: “It is only when an individual has no genuine work to engage in as a source of livelihood that he has time to think of alternative means to get the necessities of life. Since an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, the individual may be tempted to engage in criminal activities to keep body and soul together.”

    He urged the government to strengthen its agencies like the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in its efforts to create jobs, even as he said the private sector should also be encouraged to complement government’s efforts in reducing the unemployment rate. This, he’s aid, could be achieved creating the enabling environment that would enable players in the private sector of the economy to establish companies that would employ some of the graduates that are churned out in large numbers from the universities.

    Dr Balogun stressed that “government’s role in creating a brighter future for the youth is very vital. It is pertinent that government’s policies and programmes should be youth-friendly. Certain infrastructural development and establishment of industries should be pursued with vigour so much so that the army of unemployed youths would have jobs provided for them.”

    Decrying the monolithic nature of the country’s economy and its over-dependence on oil, the medic expressed his fears that if there is no serious and genuine diversification of the country’s economy, there are, he said, tendencies that the economy would experience more retrogression than expected.

    He stated that one of the sectors of the economy that its potential has not been tapped is the tourism sub-sector under which the hospitality industry falls.

    On the contributions of the hospitality industry to the well-being of the economy, Dr Balogun said that the preponderance of some anti-social behaviours resulted from frustration. He said: “Hospitality industry is meant to take off stress from any individual because one is useless if one has stress. It gives one the opportunity of being home away from home. The hospitality industry ought to be doing well but because of some policies; it is not contributing as it should to overall national economy.

    “The Ministry of Culture and Tourism should be strengthened so as to develop a good road map for the hospitality industry to thrive. They contribute to the growth of the economy through the patronage of other companies; for they will need drinks, beds, television sets, chairs, tables, foodstuffs, among others. These are products of other different companies. Through this exchange, the different companies would still be in business and would not fold up. Government should focus attention on the hospitality industry,” he said.

    Also speaking, the proprietor of the hotel, Prince Khalid Oyeniyi Olabisi said he established the hotel as part of his commitments to help in the growth of the economy and to complement government’s efforts in creating jobs for the growing number of unemployed youths.

    He said one of the ways to improve the nation’s economy is through diversification, even as he called on relevant authorities to encourage the tourism sub-sector to enable it to play its role as a major revenue earner for the country. He added that tourism should be made one of the vibrant aspects of the economy; and in doing this, you have to put in place facilities to enable tourists have a comfortable home away from home.

    One of the reasons that propelled me into this is helping government to fight unemployment that has become a one of the social problems in the country.

    “I thought deeply on how to help government in reducing unemployment rate by creating job opportunities. I decided to, in addition to my other existing going concerns, to build this hotel which has given employment to over 25 people for a start. I am satisfied that some hitherto unemployed people have been engaged,” he said.

    He advised government to provide the necessary infrastructure to boost small-scale enterprises. He specifically urged government to show more commitment to the improvement of the power sector which he said is the main factor that drives the economy.

  • NDE to create 10,656 jobs

    NDE to create 10,656 jobs

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) will create 10,656 jobs for graduates of education under its Graduate Coaching Scheme (GCS), the NDE Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, has said.

    He spoke at the Micro-Trade Fair for NDE beneficiaries in Northcentral zone in Lokoja.

    The theme of the trade fair is: Job creation through the promotion of micro and small enterprises for economic development.

    Mohammed said the directorate had in October last year introduced the scheme to create jobs as well as “solve the national malaise of mass failure in public examinations’’.

    According to him, the scheme is aimed at helping candidates with deficiencies in public examinations, such as West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and Joint Admissions Matriculation Board(JAMB), to improve their grades through proper coaching.

    Represented by Mr Jibrin Aye, the Director, Inspectorate Division, Mohammed said the fair would enable exhibitors to establish contacts outside their immediate localities.

    He said the directorate had trained unemployed graduates on the use of mobile phones to conduct financial transactions and some on mobile banking business.

    Mohammed thanked the Kogi State Government for its cooperation, noting that the partnership would go a long way in poverty reduction and increased wealth through creation of employment opportunities.

    Governor Idris Wada, represented by one of his Senior Special Assistants, Mr Henry Ukwubile, said the focus of solving unemployment had shifted from government white collar jobs to self-employment, adding that in the next 20 years, nobody would be talking of government jobs. He urged the participants to tap into every programme of the directorate.

    He pledged the government’s continued partnership with the NDE.

    The state NDE Co-ordinator, Malam Abdulkadir Sa’adu, said as at the end of last year, over 3.7 million unemployed Nigerians were employed through the various programmes of the directorate.

    Sa’adu said: “Small and medium scale businesses anywhere in the world serve as a very potent force for job creation, poverty alleviation and overall healthy economic growth and NDE has championed this over the years.”

    He called on stakeholders, state governments, non-governmental organisations and individuals to contribute their quota, saying NDE alone could not do it.

    “All hands must be on deck to solve the problem of unemployment in the country,’’ Sa’adu said.

     

  • NDE to create 10,656 jobs

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) will create 10,656 jobs for graduates of education under its Graduate Coaching Scheme (GCS), the NDE Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, has said.

    He spoke at the Micro-Trade Fair for NDE beneficiaries in Northcentral zone in Lokoja.

    The theme of the trade fair is: Job creation through the promotion of micro and small enterprises for economic development.

    Mohammed said the directorate had in October last year introduced the scheme to create jobs as well as “solve the national malaise of mass failure in public examinations’’.

    According to him, the scheme is aimed at helping candidates with deficiencies in public examinations, such as West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and Joint Admissions Matriculation Board(JAMB), to improve their grades through proper coaching.

    Represented by Mr Jibrin Aye, the Director, Inspectorate Division, Mohammed said the fair would enable exhibitors to establish contacts outside their immediate localities.

    He said the directorate had trained unemployed graduates on the use of mobile phones to conduct financial transactions and some on mobile banking business.

    Mohammed thanked the Kogi State Government for its cooperation, noting that the partnership would go a long way in poverty reduction and increased wealth through creation of employment opportunities.

    Governor Idris Wada, represented by one of his Senior Special Assistants, Mr Henry Ukwubile, said the focus of solving unemployment had shifted from government white collar jobs to self-employment, adding that in the next 20 years, nobody would be talking of government jobs. He urged the participants to tap into every programme of the directorate.

    He pledged the government’s continued partnership with the NDE.

    The state NDE Co-ordinator, Malam Abdulkadir Sa’adu, said as at the end of last year, over 3.7 million unemployed Nigerians were employed through the various programmes of the directorate.

    Sa’adu said: “Small and medium scale businesses anywhere in the world serve as a very potent force for job creation, poverty alleviation and overall healthy economic growth and NDE has championed this over the years.”

    He called on stakeholders, state governments, non-governmental organisations and individuals to contribute their quota, saying NDE alone could not do it.

    “All hands must be on deck to solve the problem of unemployment in the country,’’ Sa’adu said.

     

  • NDE trains 500 youths

    NDE trains 500 youths

    The Cross River Office of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has said that it trained 500 unemployed youths under the National Open Apprenticeship Scheme in 2011.

    The State Coordinator, Mr Edem Duke, gave the figure at an orientation workshop for trainees under the Advanced National Open Apprenticeship Scheme in Calabar.

    “We trained a total of 500 unemployed youths across the state last year on different vocational skills under the Vocational Skills Development Department of the directorate,’’ he said.

    Duke said the youths benefitted from various skills training programmes on computer, fashion designing, catering and electrical installation.

    He said that 25 unemployed youths were selected to pilot the advanced scheme in the state.

    “This year, we are recruiting 212 unemployed youths in addition to 88 unemployed from the spill over from last year,’’ he said.

    According to him, the intention is to develop their professional skills to enable them get good jobs or go into self employment in their areas of competence.

    The coordinator said the advanced scheme was designed to upgrade the experience of those who had already gone through the Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme.

    Duke said that the training would take place in organisations for three months.

    “It is our belief that as participants of this orientation workshop, you will observe the working ethics of the various establishments which you are sent to or attached,’’ he said.

    He urged the participants to show high sense of discipline and adhere strictly to the rules and regulations of the training centres.

    “If you are found wanting, you will be sanctioned and withdrawn from the programme,’’ he warned them.

    Duke urged the participants to be more committed to the training and exhibit high sense of discipline in the training centres.

     

  • Museum, NDE partner on job creation

    The National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) have entered into partnership on ways of creating jobs for the youth.

    They plan to explore employment opportunities through creative cultural industries and eco-museum. At an interactive session at NDE office, both agencies sought means of boosting their collaboration.

    NCMM Director-General, Mallam Yusuf Abdallah Usman, who led his management team to NDE Headquarters in Abuja, said the collaboration is geared towards impacting on the present administration’s transformation agenda. “Today marks a landmark in the history of National Commission for Museums and Monuments and National Directorate of Employment because we are about to establish a new partnership that will create an enabling environment for employment and empowerment of the teaming youths in this country through creative cultural industries and Eco-Museums,” he said.

    He stated that apart from the statutory function of collecting antiquities and preserving monuments, the commission also train craftsmen and women who are engaged in the production of outstanding works of art, adding that the process of producing them could be preserved and inculcated into the youths.

    Museum’s craft centres across the country are into production of pottery, calabash, leather works, black-smithing, raffia works and bead making. The partnership, according to the agencies would help strengthen the development of culture based enterprises among others.

    Usman explained that the NCMM would provide the expertise and technicians for the project collaboration, while National Directorate of Employment centers would be used for training artisans in craft making, skill acquisition, and development of entrepreneurial skills, preservation and utilisation of heritage resources based on cultural industries among the indigenous people. The involvement of NDE, he said, would be a viable way of fulfilling her corporate social responsibility and NCMM with NDE actualising its mission and vision.

    He said: “We can further involve developmental agencies like UNDP, NAPEP, SMEDAN and UNESCO to give financial and logistic supports for a broader perspective impetus to the partnership efforts in line with the federal government agenda of this administration”.

    NDE Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed assured that NDE is eager and willing to collaborate with the commission, noting that the directorate would support the commission to create employment around its activities.

    Mohammed suggested the setting up of a committee and nominated two of his directors as members. For the NCMM, the Director of Monument, Heritage and Site, Mr Oluremi Adedayo and Director of Museums, Ms Rosemary Bodam were nominated.