Unemployment: FEC okays opening of job vacancies portal

The Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, approved the opening of employment and job creation portals that will take record of job vacancies and skills of job seekers in the country and for Nigerians in the Diaspora.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, disclosed this while briefing correspondents at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to him, the platform had not been previously fully developed and was unable to take the stress of the number of users.

On its use, he explained: “The employers will come in and load the vacancy they have, the type of skill they want, the qualifications of people that can fit in there. Then the job seekers those who are looking for jobs, graduates, non-graduates will register, put in the qualification, put in their skill and what you can do, and then the two groups are matched. The employer can speak with a job seeker, via that platform.

“So, over the years we have not been able to expand it. But on a bilateral, multilateral agreement now the funds are provided. So, we are redesigning it, remodelling it, and then upgrading the infrastructure.

“Council approved that consultant also do that with a completion period of 12 weeks and with that we have passed the first stage of digitalising that particular platform.

“One of the good things about our platform now when it becomes operational, all those phones platforms that ask people to register for work, pay in N10,000 or N20,000, will become a thing of the past because this will be a government platform. And when you go there, you know is a genuine platform.

“Apart from that, people in diaspora can also upload their expertise and tell Nigerians, what they have that qualifies them for special jobs and if they are employers in Nigeria that need them, again there will be a handshake through that same portal,” he said.

Ngige also revealed that the council approved the digitisation of the operations of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) at the cost of N1.2 billion.

He explained further that  “The ministry presented two memos to the council today (Wednesday). The first memo was presented on behalf of our parastatal, the Nigeria social insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

“As you’re aware, a lot has happened in the NSITF in terms of revenue losses and pillage of funds that have been given to that organisation.

“The NSITF implements the Employee Compensation Act ECA 2010 and by that Act, employers in both public and private sectors are supposed to pay one per cent of the emoluments of their staff into a social fund in NSITF.

“And this one is to be used as a premium or insurance fund to cater for workers or staff members who have accidents, injuries, disabilities and even deaths that occur in the cause of their work. So it’s like accident or injury insurance.

“The Pension Act makes reference to it that it must be done for workers in addition to the group life. So, the monies that have gone in there have not been properly utilised, the payments have not been tracked.

“So, today we brought to council a memo for an e-NSITF by which their operations will now be digitalized. Both the payments that are put in from any of their stations, they have 56 branches and 11 regional offices. So in the comfort of your office, you can pay and register in that platform and that money is now tracked into the Central pool.

“For from the central pool, if claims are made and payments are also made to the insurance on those who are beneficiaries, you also track them. So this is one of the things the government has done in the spirit of digitalization of the economy and ease of doing business for everybody.

“So, this will make for efficiency and help the organization to grow it leaps and bounds. already the organization is revitalized following the present restructuring agreement for them.

“Today,. NSITF can pay all their salaries, they can boast of even doing capital projects. And this digitization of funds operation is part of the capital project that they are doing and like I said earlier, the accountability that is there will make for non-leakages of funds.

“We also know that previously, they have been complaints of claims not being paid but with e-NSITF will track claims and allow people to know who and who benefits from those claims. So this is one of the memos presented today.

“A consultant is going to handle it and the council approved that the digitalization should be completed in eight weeks,” he added.

The Labour Minister also assured that the lingering dispute with university-based unions will soon be resolved to enable academic activities to resume.

He denied that government plans to create a different payment table for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), noting that the government is keen to see the students back to school.   (Nigerian Tribune)