Oyo Government, NDE Partner On Employment Opportunities For Residents

By Ogundele Olanrewaju

The Oyo State Government and National Directorate of Employment, NDE, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, to facilitate enterprise creation and generate employment opportunities for residents of Oyo State.

While signing the MOU this Wednesday at the Governor’s Office, Governor Seyi Makinde who was represented by his Executive Assistant on Administration and General Service, Reverend Idowu Ogedengbe. The Governor commended the idea behind the partnership noting that there is a rapid change in global economy which demands new ideas and skills.

Makinde however said the desire of the partnership is to rapidly see to the reduction of unemployment among the youths and women both within formal and informal sectors.

“The Oyo State Government considers the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the lead Federal Government established agency for manpower development, as a critical partner towards creating opportunities for self employment and employability of the teeming unemployed persons by means of appropriate skilling and training.
“Over the years, we have had the opportunity to work together with the NDE on some projects, especially under the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), a World Bank Assisted Project.
“The YESSO project was meant to provide increased opportunity for youth employment and social service delivery and harmonise the implementation of social protection interventions in the country.
“On our part, we have been providing some interventions by recruiting workers into the Post Primary Teaching and the Civil Services. We have also embarked on the Youth Entrepreneurs in Agribusiness Project that will see about 10,000 young people being trained and empowered to become modern Agribusiness entrepreneurs.

“While we commend the idea behind this partnership, it is important to note that we live in a rapidly changing global economy which demands new ideas and skills to remain competitive. New technologies, processes and opportunities are being introduced constantly. What these mean is that the kind of skills and trainings being provided by governments and development agencies must be reflective of the realities in the employment markets and the workplace environments.
“As our nation is developing and catching up with other leading economies in the world, new industries are emerging thereby leading the way towards creation of new jobs that haven’t existed before.
“While we believe that appropriate measures are being made towards reviewing the present academic curriculum in our higher institutions of learning and technical schools, there is the need to equally devise ways of skilling and training the large number of graduates and school leavers in order to take advantage of the emerging trends in the primary and secondary sectors of the labour market.

“As we commence this partnership, our desire is to rapidly see to the reduction of unemployment among our youths and women both within the formal and informal segment of our State. We must not only focus on skilling and training, we must. endeavour to provide mentoring and monitoring for those under our various programmes in order to ensure that the whole essence and objective of this partnership is achieved. We need to deploy effective business development services towards ensuring success for our programme beneficiaries.
“It is important that we also work closely with a view to facilitating access to capital for successfully trained entrepreneurs. Our State Assembly is at the final stages of passing the Oyo State Enterprise and Employment Trust Fund in this regard.
“Let me, once again, thank the Director General of the NDE for making out time out of his busy schedule to come to Oyo State in order to be part of this historic event.

In his remarks, the Director General, National Directorate of Employment, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu says NDE and Oyo State Government are collaborating in the areas of skills training and other empowerment initiatives in the state.

Abubakar highlighted some of the regular programmes and schemes being implemented to include Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme, School on Wheels among others.