Nigeria’s economic challenges are many. But one challenge seems to be a manifestation of and a summation of other challenges and negative macroeconomic indicators. It is the challenge of unemployment and the denial or lack of opportunities for the expression of the right to work and to work under a decent and conducive environment. Employment is inextricably linked to the ability of individuals and groups to satisfy the right to an adequate standard of living, to take care of education, food, health, housing, etc. For the government to plan and take steps towards the promotion of full employment, it must gather and analyse data and statistics on employment and unemployment. This discourse reviews the challenge of unemployment and agriculture, the need for agenda setting for the new administration and continuation of reporting on the subject.

The last Labour Force Statistics, Unemployment and Employment Report was for the fourth quarter of the year 2020 and released by the National Bureau of Statistics in March 2021. Ideally, data for this report should be gathered, analysed and released on a quarterly basis. But this is two years, five months since the last report. The long-time interval questions the rationale for this delay by the NBS. The NBS has been compiling and releasing other statistical reports but cleverly ignored this. This unexplained delay may be attributed to an agency avoiding to show the government of the day in bad light. Recall that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s (retd) regime promised to create millions of jobs and to lift a hundred million Nigerians out of poverty. Since 2020, the key indicators that fuel unemployment have been on the increase; insecurity has increased, more factory closures, depreciating national currency, declining foreign reserves, massive deficit financing for consumption – not for capital and regenerative activities and the cash crunch challenges initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Economic growth and expansion have not surpassed population growth to absorb new entrants into the job market.

The key findings from the 2020 report are frightening; 33.3 per cent overall unemployment rate and 22.8 per cent underemployment rate. The unemployment rate for the age group 15-34 was 42.5 per cent while underemployment was 21 per cent. Rural unemployment was reported at 34.5 per cent while urban unemployment was 31.3 per cent. Recent projections from experts, especially the global audit and tax advisory firm, KPMG, has projected that Nigeria’s unemployment rate will rise to 40.6 per cent as compared to 2022’s 37.7 per cent.  The bare fact is that despite official refusal to acknowledge the trend, unemployment is increasing.

Against the background of the foregoing, it is imperative for the incoming administrations at the federal, state and local levels to prioritise employment creation and put it on the front burner of economic, political and social governance. The implication of this is that job creation has to be mainstreamed in a plethora of policies and governance interventions. The first sector to be addressed should be security of lives and property and its link to job creation especially in agriculture and rural development activities. The activities of terrorists, bandits, insurgents, etc. across the length and breadth of the federation has contracted the space for agriculture, self-employment and job creation. The economy cannot blossom in a state of insecurity.

The idea of value chain agriculture, from planting, harvesting, storage to value addition and possible finished products for local consumption and export has been the official mantra for the last couple of years. But it remained at the sloganeering level without translation into feasible projects and activities. The incoming administrations need to take this seriously in partnership with the local private sector. In every part of Nigeria, crops in which value addition post harvesting can increase job creation, exports, rural and urban income abound. From cocoa, palm tree, groundnuts, maize, cassava, shea butter, etc., missed opportunities should be converted to extant realities of new jobs and growth of local industries. For example, cocoa can be processed into chocolate, cocoa butter, beverages, pectin, animal foods, etc. Palm trees products are used for vegetable oil, lipsticks, shampoo, ice cream, detergents, soaps, margarine, chocolate, Nutella, baby formula, etc.

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Source: Punch Newspapers 

https://punchng.com/agenda-for-agriculture-and-job-creation/