OVER 6,000 jobs opportunities are to be created for graduates within the next 12 months through various self employment programmes as government intensifies efforts to tackle employment . Government has also initiated an entrepreneurship programme to be facilitated by four banks.

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Unfolding the Federal Government’s programme on job creation in Abuja yesterday, the director-general of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed identified the banks being consulted as, Oceanic Bank, Access Bank, , Ecobank and Diamond Bank.

The director-general said, “The dialectics of the empowerment of the poor and the youth would have to tread the path of skill acquisition, promotion of self-employment and empowerment of the people for wealth creation”.

He said “ unemployment is a dynamic problem. There is no real quick fix to addressing the challenges posed by it. The NDE would therefore continue to fine-tune these programmes and schemes to accommodate changes in labour dynamics throughout the year”.

The job creation package includes skill training of 18, 500 youths at 500 per State. Job opportunities would also be created for public servants who lost their jobs as a result of the public service reforms under the Small – Scale Enterprises Programme.

Mallam Abubakar Mohammed said, “The main thrust of job generation under the SSE programme in the next 12 months would be to provide business training and capacity building for unemployed graduates, members of the NYSC, school leavers and workers affected by the downsizing of the public sector as well as the private sector.”