The Presidency and the Industrial Training Fund on Tuesday said that the Federal Government and its agencies could not provide jobs for all Nigerians.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and Youth Employment, Afolabi Imoukhuede, said the Federal Government would create an enabling environment for the economy to thrive.
This, he said, would in turn create jobs for the teeming youths.
In an interview shortly after a one-day interactive forum organised by the ITF , Imoukhuede also stated that the Federal Government would continue to leverage on various social investment programmes, including the N-power to provide jobs for the nation’s youths.
He said, “There is no government that can do that. It is not the job of the government to create jobs for their people,. rather, it is the job of the government to create enabling environment that would allow trade and commerce, demand and supply to thrive. By doing this, jobs are created.
“Once we focus on getting the economy right by diversifying the economy, Nigerians must also understand that our future must be in our hands to take up the future.
“Some will be engaged in federal, state and local governments’ institutions, private sector, NGOs and even, these religious organisations and other places, but, what is important is that no Nigerian is left hopeless,” Imoukhuede added.
Also speaking at the forum, Director-General of the ITF, Sir Joseph Ari, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Revenue Inspectorate and Compliance, Abdulrasaq Adediran said the accelerated population growth of the country had become a “huge disadvantage and a severe dead weight.”
“The Federal Government and its agencies cannot provide jobs for all Nigerians. Instead, effort is being made to revamp Technical Vocational Education and Training, which is today described as the currency of the 21st century, to empower our people.
PUNCH