The international Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1995 was invited by the Nigerian government to help formulate a comprehensive national employment policy that would give room for more decent job for Nigerians, reduce unemployment and make the country attain its full productivity.
The policy and strategy was adopted in November 1996, following stakeholders’ meeting. Secretaries of state governments went on field visits and submitted their report, entitled “Meeting the Challenges of Raising Unemployment and Underemployments”.
Another report was prepared, entitled “National Employment Framework” and was discussed during a national workshop on National Employment Policy held in Abuja between May 5 and 7 1998, which assembled social partners and stakeholders from all works of life. The recommendations at the workshop among what was contained in the draft ILO report that formed the present National Employment Policy.
The draft policy intends to promote the goal of full employment as a priority in national economic and social policy, and to enable men and women that are available and willing to work, have a sustained livelihood through full productive and freely chosen employment and work. It will also secure improvement in the productivity of labour, so that the national workforce is afforded quality and well- remunerated employment consistent with national productivity gains.
It will also provide the fullest possible opportunity for each worker to qualify and use their skills and endowments in a job for which they are well suited, irrespective of race, sex, religion, political opinion, physical disabilities, and national extraction, ethnic or social origin. The policy is geared at safeguarding the basic rights and interest of workers, and to that end, promoting respect for relevant international labour standards, including those on forced labour, freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, the principle of non discrimination and elimination of the most extreme forms of child labour.
It would secure maximum cooperation from, and participation by the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Senior Staff Consultative Association of Nigeria (SESCAN), and other interested parties in decisions relating to national development and harmony, and minimize job losses through industrial unrest.
The policy is also expected to stimulate economic growth and development, eradicate poverty, and improve the standards of living by minimising the rates of unemployment and underemployment, optimising the utilisation of labour and human resources and protecting areas in which Nigeria is well endowed and promoting the development of relevant manpower/human resources that wolud continually meet the needs of the nation.
However, unconfirmed data show that although works, housing and urban development sector, usually considered a component of the manufacturing sector, contributed less than 4 percent to the GDP between 2004 and 2006, its growth rate rose to about 10 per cent and that was impressive.
According to the data, the sector’s contribution to employment was mainly through the building sub-sector as the road sub-sector minimally contibuted because it is currently being implemented using the equipment intensive methods. Most of the urban development jobs are executed by the foreign firms as many of those jobs are parts and parcels of road contracts. Part of the strategy in this sector is to develop capacity and promote entities in the public and private sectors including contractors so as to be able to plan and develop infrastructure works by labour-based methods.
A fairly large number of small scale contractors would constitute the bulk of private entities to be developed and supported to set businesses. Women are well suited for most of the activities involved in labour-based construction as they are not much different from their normal farming activities. These, however, call for an urgent need to mainstream the female gender in all the activities in this sector.
One of the constraints in employment generation of this sector is lack of planning and implementation of projects through Labour-based methods as well as the present systems and procedures in government which are biased against labour-based method. Even when government tried to introduce the alternative method in Nigeria, there was a lack of financial and political commitment. In addition, the road subsector shares out roads to the three tiers of government rather than have a central authority for all roads, as is the case in most countries.
The building sector which is currently driven by the private sector mainly implement labour-based methods. However, it is contending with insufficient funds, and mortgage finance as well as difficulty in acquiring land for building construction. In addition, there is the problem of insufficient decent low-cost housing models in te country.
Speaking on the policy, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Emeka Wogu, said President Jonathan was committed to reducing the menace of unemployment which according to him would have positive impact on the economy.
“It is worthy of note that the equipment-intensive approach to rural infrastructural development reduces employment opportunities during construction and maintenance phases of project implementation.
“The current economic situation in the country is that we have surplus labour force, graduates and non-graduates, skilled and unskilled, young and old and insufficient employment opportunities to absorb the surplus labour.
He added: “But I am glad to let you know that with the transformation agenda of the president, government is determined more than ever before to reduce unemployment in the country to a bearable level. We intend to achieve this through mass employment, using rural infrastructural development.”
Wogu also said that the labour intensive approach would be one of the strategies to be used to provide employment opportunities, increase income generation and improve the living standards of rural dwellers.
Also, the director general of NDE, Malam Abubakar Mohammed, disclosed that the directorate was exploiting new ways of deepening its efforts in combating the scourge of unemployment which is ravaging the entire world.
The DG said Nigeria was not immune to the debilitating effect of unemployment, adding “this is why NDE as the nation’s apex employment agency which policies and programmes have cut across various spheres of job creation in the last two decades believes strongly that the formation of the committee is timely to bring this to bear, the NDE in collaboration with International Labour Organisation (ILO) came up with a two-day workshop on mainstreaming the Labour-based approaches in government infrastructural development”.
According to Mohammed, after the meeting, major stakeholders resolved that government should speedily develop and implement relevant policies that would favour up scaling, mainstreaming and optimising the employment of Labour-based approaches in order to ensure adequate support and sustainability. It also directed that all levels of government create inter-ministerial cooperation and engagement for policy harmonisation and coherence on the use of local resources, formulation of development plans, implementation, monitoring and evaluation for efficient decision making.
The group also advised that new legislation be put in place in all tiers of government to accommodate the implementation of Labour-Based approaches in the procurement procedure using local resources. Also, that 20 per cent be set aside by all the tiers of government for projects in the rural areas in favour of Labour-based approaches.
“It was for the above resolution that the participants saw the need in forming a national working committee that will articulate and come up with policies for proper implementation of the scheme across the length and breadth of the country. The NDE and ILO have put in place the inauguration committee which would exchange ideas on national and international experiences, review existing policies, brainstorm and come up with a national policy for sustainable employment generation using Labour-based methods of infrastructural provisions in both urban and rural areas of the country, with a view to integrate it National planning process”.
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