A total of 195,534 jobs were generated by the Federal Government last year via several contracts awarded by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Mr. Labaran Maku, Minister of Information, revealed this to journalists at the end of the weekly FEC meeting Wednesday. Maku, alongside the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Muhammed, attributed the source of the figure to the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, who briefed council on the performance and challenges of his ministry in the preceding year.
“In 2012, the Federal Government generated 195,534 new jobs from the various contracts awarded by the FEC. It is the practice that ministers must say how many jobs they will create through contracts before they are approved by the council,” he said. He stated that 212 cases of industrial disputes were referred to the Ministry of Labour and Productivity under its arbitration role. Twenty-five of these cases are going for arbitration while efforts aimed at resolving 114 cases were still ongoing.
In his remarks, Wogu proactively engaged with labour unions thereby averting many trade disputes that could have cost the government heavy economic losses. Similarly, the ministry also embarked on skills acquisition in favour of workers and labour leaders to create skills needed for amicable resolution of conflicts, indicating, however, that inadequate funding militated against many of its efforts. This is also the lot of the FCT which is indebted to contractors to the tune of N420 billion over an unspecified period of time.
SOURCE
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/fg-generated-195-534-jobs-in-2012/141443/
