“Buhari’s Economic Plan Will Create 3.7m Jobs Yearly” – Minister Of Industry

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, yesterday July 18th, said the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (EGRP) is targeted towards creating an average of 3.7 million jobs yearly.

He said the jobs will be created through robust investment in infrastructure and industrialisation which will create more job opportunities.

The minister said the focus of the job creation efforts will be youth employment and ensuring that youth are the priority beneficiaries.

“…The involvement of small businesses in the service sector is a major lever for economic recovery. We have committed to reduce unemployment from 13.9 per cent as of Q3 2016 to 11.23 per cent by 2020. This translates to the creation of over 15 million jobs during the Plan horizon or an average of 3.7 million jobs per annum,” Mr Enelamah said at a youth entrepreneurship summit.

The summit held in Abuja was organised by Technoserve, a United States-based non-governmental organisation in partnership with Citi Foundation.

While declaring the summit themed “Youth Entrepreneurs as Drivers for Economic Growth” open, Mr Enelamah said the ERGP represents the first blueprint by “this administration to not only deal with the present economic meltdown, but also to ensure growth in the medium term.

“The EGRP envisages average GDP growth rate of 4.62 per cent per annum over the plan period. GDP is expected to gradually turn positive in 2018 and peak at 7 per cent per annum by 2020.”

According to the minister, ease of doing business is another area that received the plan’s attention.

“My ministry has been in the forefront of the efforts to make it easier for everyone (local and international investors) to do business in Nigeria. When we came into government, Nigeria was ranked No. 169 out of 190 countries. Nigeria is now ranked 145th position out of 190 countries in the Ease of Doing Business index for 2018.

The plan envisages improved ranking to around No 100 within the plan period.”