Job creation remains top priority of Buhari Administration — Ipaye

The Deputy Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria, Mr. Rahman Ade Ipaye, has said Job Creation remains a top priority of the Buhari Administration. This has informed the setting up of a Job Creation coordinating hub within the Office of the Vice President.
The Job Creation Hub, JCHub is to synergize the efforts of Government to facilitate the creation of sustainable jobs for the millions of unemployed Nigerians as a demonstration of the Government’s commitment to solving this problem.
Mr. Ipaye said this on Wednesday at a high-level meeting between public and private stakeholders on the development of a “Strategic Framework for Job Creation and Youth Employment in Nigeria.” He also emphasized the importance of Industry to partner with Government to outline a realistic Job Creation Implementation Plan that can take deal concisely with the urgency of the unemployment situation.
The roundtable which was hosted at the State House Banquet Hall, Aso Villa, Abuja, was to validate and gather input from both the public and private sector participants on the job creation strategic framework that is currently been finalized by the Job Creation Unit of the Presidency working with global development experts – the Dalberg Global Development Advisors in collaboration with the UK Department for International Development (Dfid) and Ford Foundation.
It will also map out ways the public, private and social sectors can play a key role in working together to drive job creation in Nigeria.
According to the Senior Special Assistant Job Creation and Youth Employment in the Presidency Afolabi Imoukhuede, the goal of the JCHub is to, among other things, brings together stakeholders to pool resources, influence and knowledge of exciting market opportunities and initiatives in a systemic manner, leveraging on Government’s renewed focus and investment.
Speaking after the event, the Special Assistant, Innovation & Entrepreneurship to the Vice President, Ife Adebayo, said the program was a huge success. He said the JCU is committed to synergising the efforts of all stakeholders in the job creation space as part of efforts to fulfil promises made by Buhari to reduce unemployment. He said the job creation framework would not be another planning document but an implementation road map to get Nigerians into work.
In attendance at the meeting from the public sector were the Directors General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). The State Governments of Kaduna and Lagos were in attendance. Also there were representatives of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Communication Technology, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) amongst others.
National President, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Etisalat Nigeria, Union Bank, Andela, Jobberman.Com, Nestle PLC, Stanbic IBTC, Shell Nigeria and, RLG were some of those who represented the private sector at the forum. Other Development Partners present included the Swiss Embassy, the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and the Tony Elumelu Foundation.