The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has expressed concern at the growing rate of unemployment rate, warning that Nigeria was in a very serious crisis.
The Director General of NECA, Dr. Timothy Olawale, in a statement on Wednesday said that the recently released data by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, indicating a steadily rising unemployment rate, was both worrisome and expected.
According to him, “while the figure showed that the unemployment crisis is worsening at an alarming rate, it is also instructive to note that the socio-economic factors that increased the figure to 27 per cent in the last NBS release remains.”
Expressing concern at the on-going challenges facing businesses, he noted that many businesses have not recovered from the negative effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
He pointed out that insecurity had caused many businesses in the Northern region to fold up while access to foreign exchange to import raw materials is low.
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According to him, the regulatory environment remains largely unfriendly.
Proffering solution to the current state of the economy, he called on the government to increase its support to the organized private sector.
“To stem the tide of this downward slope, we urge the government to refocus its efforts at supporting organized businesses to increase its production capacity, which will invariably enable them to create more jobs,” Olawale said.
He added, “Real and verifiable support should be given to MSMEs to enable growth from bottom up and a critical impact-audit of current interventions made to determine their effectiveness and relevance in the context of current realities.”
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