The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria
(ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has assured Nigerians that the
increasing rate of unemployment in the country would stop if she emerged
as the President of the country.
In a press statement on Thursday, in reaction to the recent data
released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), she warned
Nigerians against voting for “candidates that have no idea of how to
solve the challenges facing the country.”
The ACPN presidential candidate reiterated that no fewer than 80 million
Nigerians would be lifted out of poverty by her administration.
She said that her administration would implement a productivity and
competitiveness initiative that would create new opportunities and jobs
in some key sectors.
Among the sectors are agriculture, fisheries, livestock, and
agribusiness 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.
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,” Ezekwesili added.
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.
She said, “A majority of those operating in the economy are in the
informal, low productivity sectors. While previous governments have
focused largely on the formal sector in their poverty reduction and ease
of doing business schemes, the informal sector, according to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), is over 60 per cent of the Nigerian
economy ($240bn).
“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.
“These barriers on them mean that those that work the hardest in our
economies fail to earn a decent living. Investments in the formal sector
over the last couple of years, while significant, have not yielded the
kind of growth rates achieved by the informal sector, which grew at an
annual average rate of about 8.5 per cent between 2015 and 2017, in
comparison with the formal economy which grew by 0.8 per cent in 2017.
“However, increased informality, if unchecked, could lead to higher
rates of poverty and inequality.”
She also said, “We will move to embed the productivity and
competitiveness agenda within initiatives that give incentive for the
nation’s informal businesses and workers to, on their own, enter the
regulatory framework which enables adequate access to government
support, accounting, tax reform necessitated by a larger number of
registered workers, and the capitalisation of investments in domestic
industries.
“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.”
According to Ezekwesili, Nigeria’s growth and productivity can only
happen when the people have lots of jobs and when they earn incomes that
pull them out of poverty.
“Right now, people simply do not have jobs. Under President Muhammadu
Buhari, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), over 20
million Nigerians are unemployed. Again, think about that for a second.
Those are not just numbers – they are humans; one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight million humans. They have families. They have
people who depend on them.
“We all know someone who has lost a job in this economy. You may even be
one of them. We all have families and friends who call us on the phone,
pleading for any change we could spare at all to help them survive one
more day. How long can we continue like this? The right candidate is
Ezekwesili,” she added.