The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has advocated the use of cooperative and similar enterprises for job creation and youths’ empowerment in the country.
Speaking at a one-day Youth-Cooperative Dialogue organised in collaboration with Foundation for Greater Access and Support, Ngige said: “unemployment poses a great perennial challenge to many Governments across the globe. It creates the single most contributory factor to poverty and is a threat to the economy. We therefore must find new ways to create jobs and youths empowerment through the formation of Cooperatives and similar enterprise.”
The minister, who was represented by the Director Social Security and Cooperative Development, Mrs. Mojisola Sonubi, said cooperatives remain the largest non-governmental organisations contributing to national economy being an instrument for job creation and youths empowerment.
He said the management of cooperative organisations should be maximally supported and given all the necessary technical and financial assistance needed to boost its effective operations aimed at mass employment generation.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of Foundation for Greater Access Support (F-GAS), Dr. Dickson Okolo said the Youth Cooperative Dialogue is aimed at using cooperatives to achieve the diversification of the economy towards employment and wealth creation for the teeming unemployed youths and the vulnerable groups.
The Youth Cooperative Dialogue is an attempt to mobilize Nigerian youths to adopt co-operatives as a business model for self empowerment and contribute towards national development
