Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday assured Nigerians that the Federal Government had not relented in its efforts to address the nation’s unemployment problem.
Osinbajo disclosed this during a town hall meeting with youth groups, traders, and other stakeholders in business, agriculture and information and communication technology, as part of his two-day visit to Benin, the Edo State capital.
The Vice-President said that the government was committed to supporting small businesses, through funding and expert advice from its agencies, to micro, small and medium-scale enterprises.
He emphasized that the social investment programme of the Federal Government was important to President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that 200,000 beneficiaries had been recorded while the number would be increased to 300,000 by the end of June.
Osinbajo explained, “The important thing for us, as a government, is to make sure that we deal with the unemployment problem. We will deal with it in two ways.
“One, by direct employment; that is what we are doing through the N-Power programme. We will also deal with it by giving credit to people who want to work, whether it is the market women, the artisans, the N-Build, N-Teach and all that.
“Apart from that, we will also give credit to the very lowest traders, those who are hawking, those who are selling little things all over the country because all of these people are hard-working Nigerians.
“And we want to make sure that every Nigerian who is prepared to work we will give them an opportunity to work.”
On the new housing project in Benin, he said, “I want to commend the governor of the state for the excellent work that he is doing. I think that by the time I come back next (time), we are going to see some major industries here and there and some many changes.”
Earlier, Governor Godwin Obaseki enumerated efforts by his administration to address the menace of human trafficking to include ward development committees to guide the government in the provision of necessary infrastructure in rural areas.
