NDE poised to eradicate unemployment in Nigeria — DG

Barth Ndubuwah, Port Harcourt

In a bid to eradicate unemployment in Nigeria, the National Directorate on Employment (NDE) in collaboration with the Eternal Sacred Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim (ESOCS) has trained about 60 graduands in various skills, ranging from Catering, Hair dressing, Computer Appreciation, Fashion Design, GMP and GSM Repairs.

Addressing the graduands Monday in Port Harcourt, the Director General (DG) of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu, said it was disturbing that unemployment rate in the country has risen to over 33 percent.

Represented by the State Coordinator of NDE in Rivers State, Mrs Maureen Okeji, the DG said NDE as a Training Directorate, having being established in 1986 by the Federal Government, with the core mandate of designing training programmes to curb unemployment, has taken upon itself the responsibility to pursue that goal.

This, the DG said, is done through the Directorate’s specialised departments such as, REP, VSD, SSE and SPW.

According to him,the current training was done by the Vocational Skills Development Department (VSD) under the Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (BNOAS) and the areas covered are Catering, ICT, GMP, GSM, Fashion Design, and Hairdressing.

The DG further said that the programme was basically to take away the 60 graduands from the labour market, as they can now engage in meaningful ventures and even employ others, thereby reducing poverty in the nation.

Mallam Fikpo lauded the leadership of ESOCS for giving NDE the opportunity to train the beneficiaries, thereby reducing the unemployment rate, which he said the National Bureau of Statistics had put at 33 per cent across the country.

He congratulated the graduands for their commitment while the training lasted and charged them to make best use of the acquired skills to better their lots and grow the economy.

In his own remarks at the event, the Prelate of the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim, Worldwide, His Most Eminence, Baba Aladura (Dr) David Bob-Manuel said the vision of his church is in tandem with the NDE at eradicating unemployment in the country, hence the establishment of the ESOCS Empowerment Scheme (TEEMS) in 2021.