Oby Ezekwesili, presidential
candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has assured Nigerians
that she would address the increasing unemployment rate in the country if she
emerges in 2019.
Ezekwesili gave the assurance
while reacting to the Q4 2017 to Q3 2018 job report released by the Nigerian
Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.
According to the report, 20.9
million Nigerians became unemployed as
Q3 2018 as against 17.6 million in Q4 2017.
Ezekwesili warned Nigerians
against voting for “candidates that have no idea of how to solve the challenges
facing the country.”
The ACPN presidential candidate
said at least 80 million Nigerians would be lifted out of poverty by her
administration.
She said her administration would
implement a “productivity and competitiveness initiative” that would create new
opportunities and jobs in some key sectors most especially the agricultural
sector where more than one-third of Nigeria’s active labour population are
found.
“There will be jobs from light
manufacturing industries, construction, housing and public works, renewable
solutions, services including trade, telecoms and technology, domestic tourism,
and creative industries,” she said.
“These industries not only hold
the key to putting more Nigerians to work but provides a much-needed boost to
the nation’s productivity.
“Promoting and supporting these
industries will occur through a mix of sound policies on trade, tax,
infrastructure, skills, training, and research and development.”
She also said priority would be
placed on building a rapidly expanding economy, which would be powered by the
private sector based on an economic structural change agenda.
Ezekwesili blamed previous
governments for focusing only on the formal sector and abandoning the informal
sector.
“Unable to tackle the factors
which lead to informality, such as low level of education, previous governments
have chosen either to ignore the problem or militate against it. The informal
sector also suffers low productivity due to high business costs which outstrip
earnings,” she said.
“These barriers on them mean that
those that work the hardest in our economies fail to earn a decent living.
“In order to revitalise key
aspects of the economy and implement dramatic reform, the government will pay
significant attention to the informal sector, as the principal creator of
employment and as a catalyst for growth and development.”
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