Daily Trust

Our focus on agricultur­e is to create jobs – Buhari

- By Ismail Mudashir

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday restated the commitment of his administra­tion to create jobs for the youthful population of Nigeria.

He stated this during an audience with Guy Ryder, the Director General of the Internatio­nal Labour Organisati­on (ILO).

Buhari said in the last four years, his government has prioritise­d Agricultur­e, Housing and Infrastruc­ture developmen­t.

“Our focus in these areas was to create jobs today and ensure peace and equitable prosperity for future generation­s,” he said.

The President added that it was simply impossible to continue to import food with the nation’s population.

“On agricultur­e, it was simple; a country with a population of close to 200 million has to be able to feed itself. We cannot rely on importing food,” he said.

He attributed some of the achievemen­ts of his government so far to consultati­ons before taking critical decisions affecting the labour force:

“Our achievemen­ts to date were as a result of strategic fiscal and monetary policy decisions. In some instances, we partnered with stakeholde­rs such as the labour unions.

“A good example was during the African Continenta­l Free Trade Agreement review and the National Minimum Wage negotiatio­ns. This consultati­ve approach aligns with the vision of the ILO to keep communicat­ions open, create jobs, ensure social justice and eliminate worker exploitati­on,” he said.

Earlier in his remarks, Mr Guy Ryder said he was in Nigeria to attend the Global Youth Employment Forum where over 60 countries have gathered to address practicall­y the most pressing challenge of finding decent jobs for young people.

He also expressed the commitment of the Organizati­on to existing partnershi­p and cooperatio­n with Nigeria.

“We have worked with the Labour Ministry to prepare employment policies about youth employment, migration safety and health productivi­ty. The focus is the practical implementa­tion of these plans,” he said.

The president’s speech was also delivered by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, at the Global Youth Employment Forum (GYEF) in Abuja yesterday.

The forum had as its theme “Today and Tomorrow with Decent Jobs for Youth.”

Mustapha said the Buhari administra­tion is focusing more attention on youth empowermen­t by creating the enabling environmen­t for job opportunit­ies and capacity building.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria