The House of Representatives on Wednesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate a process of bailing out specific and critical industries in the country in order to reduce the huge unemployment among the youth.
The lawmakers who frowned at the state of the nation, tasked Federal Government to devise strategies that will lead to improved power supply, especially to serve the industries so as to prevent them from imminent collapse due to the high cost of power.
Similarly, the lawmakers underscored the need to design a special bail out strategy for both publicly quoted and privately owned companies for resuscitation devoid of bureaucratic bottlenecks and demand for collateral, except with the equipment and assets of the industries.
The resolution was passed following the adoption of a motion on the ‘Need to bail out ailing industries to enable them absorb the teeming unemployed graduates,’ sponsored by James Faleke (APC-Lagos).
In his lead debate, Faleke noted that about 1.3 million new graduates pass out every year from the National Youth Service scheme and that there are about 20 million unemployed graduates in Nigeria at the moment.
He explained that the above number does not include those graduates who were excluded from the national service on account of age or who attended other institutions of higher learning that do not present candidates for the national service, such as holders of the Ordinary National Diploma (OND), National Certificate in Education (NCE) and those who attended the National Open University.
The lawmaker said as a result of the collapse and closure of many industries that would have employed those graduates, they are now left to roam the streets of major cities in search of unavailable jobs, in the process, are exposed to the risks of kidnapping, prostitution, cultism, armed robbery and other sundry crimes, as well as falling prey to the antics of employment scammers who take advantage of their desperation to exploit them.
According to him, many states of the federation are dependent on allocations from the Federation Account for running the States, and recently, on bail out funds to pay salaries of workers, as a result, cannot be looked upon to provide employment for their graduates.
While acknowledging Federal Government’s initiated programmes such as N-Power and You-Win, he described the impact as “a drop in the ocean in comparison with the number who do not have access to the portals on which those opportunities are advertised.
“Majority of the graduates lack the technical knowledge and capacity to become self-employed or to create employment opportunities for others, and the system of farming and agriculture in the country is obsolete and lacking modern mechanism, thus becoming unattractive to the graduates as an employment option,” Faleke noted.
In the bid to holistically addressed the challenge, Faleke, chairman, House Committee on Customs argued that bail out could be applied through the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, Nigerian Export and Import Bank at a single digit interest rate with three years moratorium as well as Cooperatives and Microfinance Banks be included in the programmes to lend to businesses at single digit interest rates to help boost the stock and sales of those traders.
The lawmaker added that managers should be appointed from unemployed graduates through the participating banks to join the management team of each entity to ensure the revival of the industries and full repayment of the bail out funds after which the managers will be eased out of the companies or retained on agreed terms.
The Lagos lawmaker however warned that unless the Federal Government takes drastic steps toward redirecting this trend, the country will continue to experience geometric rise in ritual killings involving young people, brigandage, internet fraud, terrorism and other sundry crimes.
He said if these steps are adopted, it will help reduce the country’s dependence on imports, increase income and gross domestic product of the country, boost the foreign reserves, thus leading to economic buoyancy and reducing dependence on oil as the major income earner for the country.
While ruling on the motion, Speaker Yakubu Dogara who presided the plenary mandated the Committees on Finance, Industry, and Labour, Employment and Productivity to devise a plan that will enable the Federal Government to actualize the bail out proposal to ailing and moribund industries in order to address the problem of unemployment in the country.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
