FG To Review 774,000 Special Public Works After ILO Labour Unions Call Programme ‘Indecent’

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that the ministry is ready to fine-tune the Special Public Works Programme to make it more decent as the government is working to create more opportunities for Nigerians.

Ngige who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Peter Yerima Tarfa said this on Tuesday during the National Conference on Employment Promotion held at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja.

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The event titled: ‘Addressing the Challenges of Employment and Reintegration at the National and Sub-National Levels in the Post Covid-19 Era: Impact and Policy Response,’ was organised by the Ministry of Labour in collaboration with Employment German Corporation, GIZ and the International Labour Organisation.

The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic had worse Nigeria’s unemployment rate to 33.33 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Many Nigerian businesses have gone bankrupt, particularly MSMEs in the country.

Part of the intervention programmes to reduce the impact of the pandemic on Nigerians was the SPW designed to create 774,000 jobs at a pay of N20,000.

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The programme was overhauled by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the National Directorate of Employment .

The minister said, “I note the comment by the representative of the TUC on the sustainability and also the impact of that programme. I want to throw a challenge to this meeting to discuss how we can work the sustainability of such a programme and to fine tune it for better delivery and better impact.”

This was after the Trade Union Congress President, Quadri Olaleye called the N20,000 wage pegged for the programme as ‘indecent.’

Olaleye said, “The Federal government has implemented her Special Public Works (SPW) programme meant to create 774,000 jobs for unemployed youths.

“While this might seem laudable, we need to pay attention to the quality of those jobs and how they contribute to our national development.

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“Are the jobs such that would be regarded as decent and sustainable? These are questions that need to be asked. The fact that we have graduates of tertiary institutions earning N20,000 monthly is a problem in itself that must be addressed immediately.”

For the International Labour Organisation, the Nigerian government needs to create decent jobs to overcome some of its economic challenges.

The ILO Country Office Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Liaison for ECOWAS, Ms Vanessa Lerato Phala, said the government has stepped up effort to create employment, but advocated for a more decent job creation.

Phala said, “How do we begin to talk about decent work? And for us at the ILO, the issues about decent employment is very important, we are not talking about any jobs, we are talking about jobs that are decent and I think for us the articulation of that decent work agenda and the core of it is the fundamental principles.”

Phela said both public and private actors need to collaborate to reduce the rate of the informal sector so that their needs can be adequately captured.

The ILO regional boss said, “The issue of informality is very high. The informal sector is big, but the sector in some of the countries in the continent and again particularly in Nigeria, how do we begin to assist the informal sector to transition into the formal sector so that they can also enjoy the benefits that come with the formal sector, the protection that comes in the formal sector.”

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The Nigerian Labour Congress National President, Ayuba Wabba, who also spoke at the conference said the Covid-19 has exposed Nigeria’s poor economic model.

He called for the incorporation of a net zero carbon transition framework into the Nigerian employment policy, a move he said would create more employment.

He said, “We call for increased partnership between government and employers and other social actors especially labour as work towards working the talk.

“Let me also remind us that by dealing with the crisis of unemployment in Nigeria, we demand collective commitment to finding practical solutions to deliver workers in our country.

“Especially through employment promotion policies, improvement of labour market information through research and credible data generation.

“I think the time is now and I think the Covid-19 challenge has exposed the inadequacies of the current economic model that we practice and I think this is a very wonderful opportunity to look at what model that can address these daunting challenges.”

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