My ministry will create over two million jobs in three years —Minister Lai

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has claimed that his ministry will create more than two million additional jobs within the next three years.

He said that the ministry planned to achieve that in line with the Buhari administration’s efforts to move 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

Mohammed spoke to State House correspondents at the end of the sixth virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday.

On how the ministry could achieve the job creation, Mohammed explained that the Cultural Industrial Centres, which are scattered all over the country, had the capacity to creat 500,000 jobs within the next three years, adding that the nation could have some 100,000 jobs from the restoration of museums, especially in Lagos, Plateau and Kwara.

“But the good news, as contained in today’s presentation, is that the Ministry of Information and Culture is set to create over two million jobs within the next three years.

“We are doing this through the implementation of deliverable number seven, which mandates us to collaborate with the private sector to create jobs for the youth.

“The number one job creator under the Ministry of Information and Culture is the Digital Switch Over (DSO) in broadcasting, which is set to create one million jobs in the next three years through the manufacturing of set-top-boxes (decoders) and TV sets, TV and Film production, as well as TV and Online advertising and Data, among others.”

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The minister said that the DSO would also fetch 100 million dollars from the collection of TV licences and Digital Access Fess, as well as one billion dollars from the sale of the spectrum that would be vacated once the Analogue to Digital migration has been completed.

Mohammed also revealed that the ministry had so far rolled out the DSO in five states (Enugu, Osun, Kwara, Kaduna, and Plateau) as well as the Federal Capital Territory, while efforts had been intensified to extend the rollout to all parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the minister, noting that the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy had affected all sectors in Nigeria and around the world, said the creative industry had been hit harder than any other sector.

He said the situation was so because the industry is the most people-centred, and with social distancing and the ban on mass gathering, the industry is now grappling at straws.

However, Mohammed expressed optimism that the ongoing reform of the Broadcast and Advertising Industries would help strengthen the industries so they could live up to their billing and generate more job opportunities.

He said, “As for the Advertising Sector, bringing Nigeria’s TV advertisement market to what it should be, which is three times its current size, could result in additional $200-400 million dollars revenue to the industry, in addition to creating thousands of jobs.’’

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