James Ocholi, Nigeria’s minister of state for labour and employment has explained why unemployed Nigerians are to receive the N5,000 monthly stipend promised by the government.
Ocholi said that the government was enlisting the help of experts who were already working on compiling the list of unemployed.
He said, ”Before we got to where we are, there was no data anywhere. There is no data of the unemployed. In fact there is no data of the employed. It is a bad situation.”
“As I talk with you, there are experts working on the software on the various things which we have discussed with them on how to capture the details of the unemployed and the employed. And for those who are employed, there are many who are in wrong places; there are many who are in jobs and they are not enjoying the job and who want to have a job better than what they are doing.
“There is a firm that we have sourced for, working with the National Directorate of Employment, (NDE) right now. NDE has done a pilot scheme in Bwari and they have an office in Lobito crescent right now working in preparatory for a mega scale on job proffer.
“What it takes to get that data ready is part of our work. Our work does not begin when the data comes out because the data itself does not employ people.”
