The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has warned that federal government would not tolerate incompetence from the parastatals and agencies of government.
Speaking during a working visit to headquarters of three agencies under the ministry, the minister said changing times demand dynamic leadership to meet up with the extant challenges.
He said all hands must be on deck to push the nation out of recession by 2017.
Specifically, the minister stressed the need for the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to distinguish itself in the joint effort to move the country out of recession through massive job creation in the area of agriculture and mining which were hitherto neglected.
“We must battle recession from all fronts. We must take Nigeria out of recession in 2017 and the National Directorate of Employment shall lead the way. This agency must lead domestic production in agriculture and mining.
“Nigeria must stop the importation of rice and other items we can produce here. Therefore, the NDE must redesign its programmes for the 2017 to align with massive job creation in agriculture, to sufficiently feed the nation and create jobs en mass,” he said.
At the Headquarter of the Nigeria Social Industrial Trust Fund (NSITF), the minister tasked the management of NSITF to expand its scope of operation to capture Nigerians working in the private sector in order to enable them benefit from the scheme.
“The bitter truth is that NSITF has not lived up to expectations. It is high time we changed our old ways so that the fund can fulfilled its mandate. We must show more seriousness and face the work more squarely,” he said.
During his visit to the National Productivity Centre (NPC), the minister called for improved productivity, saying that no nation has ever made progress without proper attention to productivity measurement.
“One of the major problems facing the nation is its inability to adequately measure her productivity. No nation has ever made progress without proper attention to productivity measurement, in such a situation the citizenry is not productivity conscious, with serious consequences on National output and remunerations.
“The present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has productivity as a priority but a lot of Nigerians do not know and appreciate what you are doing, there is a need therefore for a lot of sensitisation,” said.
In his remarks, the Director General of the National Productivity Centre, Dr. Kashim Yunusa Akor, said the centre is working on development of productivity wage linkage system template aimed at ensuring that wage determination is guided by workers’ productivity, among other variables.
The Acting Director General of the National Directorate of Employment, Mr. Kunle Obayan expressed concern over the poor budgetary allocation to the agency, stressing that the poor budgetary allocation is hampering the ability of the agency to perform optimally.
On his part, the acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, Mr. Ismail Agaka, said the agency work work assiduously towards enlisting more companies into the scheme and respond promptly to claims in the coming year.
