Through ‘agriculture and its chains alone’, Buhari has created about 7m jobs- Ngige

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has created millions of jobs since coming to power in 2015, with “agriculture and its chains alone” creating about seven million jobs.

Ngige disclosed this in an interview with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting he had with Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.

He said the administration had, to a great extent, fulfilled its promise to provide jobs.

The labour minister said, “We promised jobs when we came on board, but what has happened is that people tried to quantify jobs in terms of ‘white collar’ jobs for graduates from universities, polytechnic but they don’t want to look at the ‘blue collar’ jobs.

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“Agriculture and its chains alone have created more than five to seven million jobs. Talk in terms of rice; from rice tilling, harvesting, sending to the paddies, mills, and even where people are making the jut bags, transportations, people are getting jobs. So, that value chain alone from agric is enormous.

“Take the N-power, we have created millions of jobs from here. Skill acquisition from the NDE and other agencies of government, jobs are being created. We give them tools as plumbers, electricians, cosmetologists, shoemakers, tilers and several other areas. We have created several jobs.”

Ngige said he used the opportunity of the meeting with the President to brief him on the various industrial actions witnessed recently in the country.

“We had to look at where we are and also look at where we are in terms of job creation, labour administration and the issue of national minimum wage, which labour has been asking the government to set in motion,” he said.

 

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