The Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has said that Nigeria’s 33 per cent unemployment figure is indefensible and that the situation has been compounded by the COVID-19 scourge.
He said the government-run special public works that targets paying 774,000 young people monthly stipends may have been hijacked for political patronage in many states.
He said this at the weekly ministerial briefing organised by the presidential communication team on Thursday.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate translates to some 23.2 million people, the highest in at least 13 years, and the second-highest rate in the world.
“The unemployment figures are indefensible. The 33 per cent was compounded more by the COVID scourge, the whole world is reeling,” Mr Keyamo said.
“So it will be very short-sighted of us as a government, very myopic, very, like wrong game approach to think that we want to live out of poverty and create employment by opening up gaps in the civil service to employ people. How many are we going to employ for the 33 per cent? That’s so high.