•Manufacturers lament 64m youth unemployment
A total N420 billion intervention fund for the manufacturing sector, which would have created jobs, is gathering dust at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), TheNiche has learnt.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Entrepreneurs for whom the money was set aside can scarcely access it.
Consequently, no fewer than 64 million youths in Nigeria, 30 per cent of the population, are unemployed. This figure does not include the millions under-employed.
The enormity of the problem is such that entire populations of about four West African countries have nothing to do. When you have this huge population doing nothing, then you are sitting on a gun power, warned Association of Micro Industries of Nigeria (AMIN) National President, Muhammed Mustafa.
Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he said “the country has 170 million people with general unemployment rate at 23.9 per cent. Youth unemployment represents 30 per cent of that population which means we have 64 million young people that are unemployed.”
About 1.8 million youths who pass through tertiary institutions pour into the labour market yearly, according to Finance and Economy Co-ordinating Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
NBS statistics show that 95 per cent of those employed earn less than N75,000 monthly, ranking Nigeria among the poorest countries in the world.
Both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) warn that unemployment could spell doom for the country if not tackled.
TUC Vice President, Issa Aremu, urged the government and all stakeholders to create jobs.
He added: “The greatest resource is not just oil and gas, solid minerals. The greatest resource is labour, human resource. The only thing India and China are parading is not oil and gas; it is their human resources.
“The challenge is to have human resource and see labour as a factor of production, as a partner in development. We must motivate labour for productivity through appropriate legislation, give workers protection in terms of minimum pay and pension after active work life.”
The CBN came up with N200 billion intervention fund for those indebted to banks to refinance and restructure their loans. Some of the debts were affecting the balance sheet of some banks.
It was concluded that one way to help the banks and also help the debtors who are manufacturers was to give them a lifeline by restructuring and refinancing the debts.
The debts were refinanced through the CBN with this facility to a tenor of 15 years, and the interest rate was reduced to 7 per cent.
Besides, the CBN has put on the table another N220 billion for small and middle-sized enterprises (SMEs), and 50 per cent of the fund is earmarked for women in business.
The money has also not been disbursed yet. It is still on the CBN table.
TheNiche learnt that micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have difficulty meeting the criteria for accessing the fund, as the CBN did not engage stakeholders on how best to handle the scheme.
Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Director General, Muda Yusuf, confirmed that accessing the fund has not been easy for small firms, but some medium businesses meet the criteria.
“They look at your collateral, track record, cash flow, the kind of business you are doing, a whole lot of issues they look at. But generally, SMEs have challenges meeting many of these criteria,” he disclosed.
Both Yusuf and Mustafa agreed that many MSMEs do not keep proper record, do not isolate business funds from personal funds, and some lack proper management system.
The government did not properly engage stakeholders which could have helped their members meet the criteria for accessing the fund.
“It is either the key stakeholders are not aware or they don’t have the capacity. AMIN came into being because their aspirations were not being met by the existing stakeholder association that is supposed to drive the objectives and mission statement of the government as regards jobs creation,” Mustafa said.
