Kassim Omomia

The House of Representatives has asked the executive branch of government to lift all embargos placed on employment and as well direct the Head of service of the Federation , HOSF, to declare existing vacancies and recruit eligible Nigerians

Passing a resolution after debating a motion sponsored by Hon. Sani Bala, the lawmakers also urged members of  the Organized Private Sector to also  fill existing vacancies in their organizations in order to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.

Debating the motion, the House regretted the embargo placed on employment following the COVID-19 pandemic and fall in Global oil prices and and commended the Government for not sacking or reducing workers salaries due to the common challenges

According to them, however, there was the need to make drastic employment now, if the growing turn out of graduates and NYSC members that  are thrown into the labour market is anything to come by

Warning further on the consequences of an unemployed youths group in the country, Honorable Bala in his lead debate, rolled out statistics, like the federal government instituted stimulus packages of N65 billion to assist a coalition of private sector operators, N50billion survival funds for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and N15billion guaranteed uptake scheme to save 500,000 jobs, among other interventions.

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He also warned on the labour ministry projection  that Nigeria would record an unemployment rate of 33.5% by 2020, in addition to the forecast of 39.4 million job losses were by December 2020.

Similarly he canvassed  the report by the  Nigeria Bureau of Statistics  of unemployment rate  at about 27.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the highest on record since 2018 when unemployment rate was put at 23.1 percent in the third quarter of that year.

Also  the 2 million Nigerians that  will be  impoverished by the World Bank report as well as another 5 million Nigerians  facing poverty as a result of COVID–19 Pandemic, are all verified indications that require the FG to open the employment space and get Nigerians, especially the youths working to make ends meet and grow the GDP,  reduce poverty, among others, Hon Bala also canvassed