Reps say no to incentives to unemployed graduates

 

THE House of Representatives, on Wednesday, rejected a bill that sought to provide monetary incentives for unemployed graduates in the country, pending the time they would be employed.

sponsored by Honourable Arua Arunsi, had sought to amend the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) Laws 2004, by creating specific functions and objectives to cater for unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions.
It was billed for second reading on Wednesday, but lawmakers unanimously kicked against it.
Honourable Arunsi had claimed that the objective of the bill was to address the problems being faced by unemployed graduates between the ages of 18 and 35 years.
He had suggested through the bill that certain amount of allowances should be given to registered unemployed graduates in the country.
Chairman, Committee on Labour, Employment and  Productivity, Honourable Essien Ayi, maintained that  there was no need for the bill, as an earlier bill on National Social Insurance Trust Find (NSITF) had already addressed the issue of stipends, adding that if this should scale through, it would disallow the organisation from carrying out its duties.
Honourable Ibrahim El-sudi, while faulting the bill, said there was nothing new in it, adding that similar programme for unemployed graduates was already in existence at the NDE.
On his part, Honourable James Faleke maintained that providing such monetary incentive could only compound the economy challenges facing the country, saying since the Nigerian economy was not production-based, industrial revival efforts would be defeated.
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