20th June, 2017
A Financial expert, Charles Nwaekeaku, has urged the Federal Government to address certain fundamental issues in the country to tackle the increasing rate of unemployment in the country.
Nwaekeaku, an Associate Professor and former Head of Department, Public Administration, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, gave this advice on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that the Federal Government should ensure a reduced cost of doing business in the country to provide an environment conducive for businesses to thrive.
According to him, the Federal Government should ensure regular supply of power to create an environment conducive for business to thrive in the country.
“Also, the issue of insecurity should be addressed and handled, while infrastructure should be provided across the country.
“When these things are put in place, you will see many business enterprises springing up in the country to offer employment opportunities to more people.
“The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the unemployment rate in the country rose from 13.9 per cent in the 3rd quarter to 14.2 per cent in the 4th quarter of 2016.
“The recent report by the NBS stated that the period under review showed that unemployed was 27.12 million in the 3rd quarter, compared to 28.58 million persons in the 4th quarter.
It said that this showed an increase in the number of unemployed labour force by 351,015 persons,” he said.
According to Nwaekeaku, the result is just a mere confirmation of the obvious that many businesses have been folding up in the country due to the unfavourable business environment.
He explained that a number of government policies had aggravated rate of unemployment in the country.
He said: “the cost doing of business in the country is very high and because the cost of doing business is very high, many small and medium enterprises have folded up.
“They have thrown back to the labour market the people who were hitherto employed in addition to the thousands of graduates churned out by Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education across the country.
“This time, a number of people have been either sacked or retrenched by their various establishments; certainly, the number of unemployment will continue to increase except we address the problem fundamentally,” he said.