The Federal Government has expressed readiness to create a minimum of 15 million jobs for unemployed Nigerians before 2020.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udo Udoma, made this disclosure during a news conference to commemorate the recently launched Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) launched by the Federal Government.
According to him, the implementation of the ERGP would ‘‘bring down the rate of unemployment by creating 15 million direct jobs in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, services and particularly among the youths by 2020’’.
He projected that the manufacturing sector would grow at an average of 8.5 percent and peak at 10.6 percent by the same year. On agriculture, the minister stated that the sector would also ‘‘grow by 6.9 per cent over the period; we want self-sufficiency in rice and wheat production between 2018 and 2020 respectively. We also envisage 60 per cent reduction in importation of petroleum products while becoming a net exporter of refined crude by 2020’’.
The Minister further expressed optimism that the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, would grow by 4.6 percent during the plan period and peak at 7 per cent by 2020, noting that the administration was also working toward reducing inflation to single digit before the expiration of the plan. He stated that the ERGP was an offshoot of the Strategic Implementation Plan which became operational in 2016.
He assured that the ‘‘government would build on the momentum since it would put the country on the path of diversified, inclusive and sustained growth’’. The Minister also assured Nigerians that efforts toward generating 10 Gigawatts of electricity was ongoing.
