The Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, has called for more budgetary allocation for 2025 to enable the Ministry to scale up the performance of key areas of its mandate.
He noted that the fund would be particularly used to renovate, reconstruct, and re-equip the skills development centres under the Ministry and its agencies across the country, aimed at generating employment.
Dingyadi spoke in Abuja at the 2025 Budget Defence meetings with the House Committee, and the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, respectively.
He noted that the total budgetary allocation of 46 billion, seventy-nine million, nine hundred and sixty thousand, five hundred and forty-four naira (N46, 079, 960, 544.00) for the Ministry and its parastatals this year would not be sufficient to attain set objectives.
The Minister maintained that skill development programmes would generate sustainable job opportunities for individuals, which would ultimately promote national economic growth.
Dangyadi stressed that creating jobs through skill development is crucial to achieving part of the federal government’s agenda.
The Minister said, “ One of the key priorities of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is job creation, which falls under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. For us to achieve this noble objective, we need special funds to renovate, reconstruct, and re-equip the skills development centres under the ministry and its agencies across the country.”
“We are aware that many of the infrastructural projects in this year’s budget can be used to create jobs for our teeming youths. However, over 60% of such jobs are unskilled jobs that are not sustainable. Once the project is completed, many of them will go back to become unemployed.
“The best solution to unemployment is the creation of skilled jobs with starter packs, where trainees will set up their own self-sustaining jobs to contribute to the economic growth of the nation,” the Minister said.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Senator Diket Plang, stated that the Ministry deserved a boost to its budgetary allocation to enable it function effectively.
Speaking, the Chairman, House Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Hon. Adefarati Adegboyega, emphasised the significant role of skill development in the economic growth of the nation.
He noted that sustainable employment programmes, such as skill development, would provide a permanent solution to unemployment, unlike occasional palliatives that only offer temporary relief.
