Unemployment: Nigeria needs 50m jobs in 10yrs — WTO DG

Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, has said Nigeria would need to create five million jobs for a decade to tackle unemployment.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala spoke when she met with captains of industry in Abuja on Tuesday.

“Nigeria must create jobs, especially for its young people,” she said.

She made a case for value-added manufacturing and urged captains of industry to pursue it.

The DG said economic growth in Nigeria has been sluggish since 2016 when oil prices tumbled globally.

“Nigeria’s economy is at critical juncture. Insufficient structural change has made Nigeria more vulnerable to the shocks in the fall of oil prices five years ago and now it must grapple with the impact of the pandemic. The looming transition to a low carbon global economy implies more changes ahead,” she said.

She said Africa imports over 90 per cent of its pharmaceuticals and urged captains of industry in

Nigeria to invest in Pharmaceutical to be better positioned for the next pandemic.

Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, urged the WTO to help Nigeria to make sure African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“One area you can help us has to with the AfCTA. We need a lot of support from the WTO to make sure that it works. Right now, the biggest challenge that we have is that the regional markets are not really working. They work to a certain extent but a couple of them are not following the rules,” he said.