The Federal Government has so far created over 26,000 jobs through the Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YOUWiN) programme, according to President Goodluck Jonathan.
2,672 Senior Civil Servants Promoted
Meanwhile, about 2,672 top civil servants from grade levels 14 to 16 have been promoted to the directorate cadre having passed their 2013 promotion exercise conducted by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) in collaboration with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
The President stated this while speaking at the launching of the third edition of the programme at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, adding that the government was determined to reduce unemployment among youths through such innovative approaches like the YOUWiN.
The President, who noted that the programme had been targeted at the creation of over 80,000 jobs in line with the government desire to create employment for Nigeria’s vibrant youths, added that, "Nigeria is one of those countries that have a very big percentage of young, not just young but vibrant and enterprising young people".
"When we came into office in 2011, the total number of unemployment in the country stood at 35 per cent and we considered that as unacceptable and in response we launched a number of initiatives which included the YOUWiN to provide jobs for our citizens.
The YOU WiN programme is unique in the sense that it depends on Nigerian youths to create jobs for other Nigerian youths. The programme supports enterprising young men and women to establish their own businesses that will enable them employ others".
Jonathan, who announced that the first phase of YOUWiN created 22,000 jobs, added that the second phase, which focused on women, has so far led to the creation of 5,000 jobs.
"I am happy to report that so far, over 26,000 direct jobs have been created across our six geo-political zones. This includes 22,000 from the YOUWiN phase 1 and over 5,000 from YOU WiN 2".
He commended the success rate, even as he also applauded the quality of products exhibited, stating that products emanating from the beneficiaries can compete favorably with those from anywhere in the world.
He appealed to multinational conglomerates operating in Nigeria and banks as well, asking other related institutions to assist government in providing the much-needed funds for the enterprising youths.
In a statement, the Head, Press and Public Relations of the Commission, Dr. Joel Onuche said, "about 4,493 officers participated in this year's promotion exercise for the directorate cadre from levels 14 to 16. Out of this number, only 2,672 were successful, representing 59.57 per cent as against the 1,229 who got their promotions as directors out of a total of 4,034 officers who participated in the 2012 exercise, representing 30.6 per cent respectively".
The statement said successful candidates emerged on the basis of meritocracy, integrity and impartiality, which were some of the core values the commission is now emphasizing.
"Recall that the federal civil servants, especially the directorate level officers, had before the introduction of these measures suffered some frustration while attempting to get promoted due to lack of vacancy," it noted.
According to the statement, the increase in the number of successful candidates did not undermine the integrity of the process as recognized professional bodies such as ICAN, NIM along with retired and serving officers that were subjected to integrity test were engaged to conduct the exams.
Source: Guardian
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