Dike Onwuamaeze
The federal government has adopted a revised National Employment Policy (NEP) that is focused on creating an enabling environment for productive and employment intensive growth in Nigeria.
This was disclosed last week in Lagos by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr. Muhammadu Dingyadi, in his opening remarks at the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) 2025 Job and Employment Fair with the theme, “Future Ready: Harnessing Digital Skills for Career Success and Employment.”
Dingyadi said: “I am delighted to inform you that the federal government on Monday, May 12, approved the adaption and implementation of the revised National Employment Policy for our dear country. The goal of the employment policy is to create the environment for productive and employment intensive growth in Nigeria.
“The review of the policy was borne out of the need to develop new strategies, which will address the challenges of unemployment and poverty, while creating economic opportunities for productive and remunerative employment for Nigerians.”
He said that the essence of the job fair is to assist in bridging the gap between jobseekers and employers, adding that the government’s main responsibility is to engender favourable environment for job creation and ensure that jobs are created and provided to Nigeria’s teeming youth population.
According to him, “this fair promises to be a remarkable event that showcases the importance of digital competences and potential within the Nigerian economy. It present excellence opportunity for us to interact, foster ties, share knowledge and share solutions that can shape digital employability and connect jobseekers to employers in need of their skills.”
The minister said that in an era that is defined by rapid technological advancement and digital transformation, the ability to learn and apply digital skills is no longer optional but essential.
He added, “This is because the world of work is evolving at unprecedented pace and bringing new dynamics to play. From automation to artificial intelligence to remote collaborations to data driven decision making where nearly every industry rely on digital proficiency to not only operate but to drive and be able to compete favourably alongside with its peers.”
He pointed out that the growing disconnection of the institutions of education from practical digital competences that employers seek necessitated the theme of the fair that was focused on digital skills.
He noted that the multiplier effect of focusing on digital skills would be the development of future prone careers where skill gaps are bridged and reduced to the barest minimum.
Dingyadi said: “Digital skills are not static but evolving. The emphasis on being future ready signals the importance of lifelong learning, agility and adaptability in any professional field. This, in no small measure, will empower individuals to embrace change rather than shy away from it. By equipping jobseekers with relevant future capabilities this theme contributes to our country’s national goals of job creation, economic growth and reduced unemployment.”
Commenting on the importance of the job fair in engendering gainful employment for Nigerian youths, the Assistant Director for Learning and Development, NECA, Ms. Isabella Usen, described the NECA’s annual job fair, which is in its fifth edition, as the association’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), “where we are bridging the unemployment gap in the economy.”
“This is our own way of ensuring that the youths are gainfully employed and also have the requisite skills to be employed. Because we are employers’ association, we take it as our responsibility to ensure that employers have the right kind of people to do the kind of work that they are looking for.
“This why we precede every job fair with a learning program and because we are focusing on digital skills, we offered the jobseekers self-paced e-learning training from our NECA-ILO e-Campus, to get them prepared with the right frame of mind and skills before the job fair,” Usen said.
Speaking in the same vein, the Director, Outsourcing and Workforce Group, NECA, Ms. Nneka Eneli, said that the focus this year is enable jobseekers to be digital ready to make their job efficient.
Also, the representative of the Trade Union Congress at the fair and Director of Medical Laboratory Services, Mr. Kabiawu Gbolahan, said that job creation translates to wealth creation for every country.
Gbolahan, however, said that that the time has come for Nigeria to be interested in ensuring that the skill sets being produced by its educational institutions could measure up with the emerging digital world.
He, therefore, urged the government to look into the curriculum of studies to ensure that they are useful to the economy. “We need to conform with the current trend in AI and digital economy so that our people will be employable and job creation will be seamless,” he said.
