The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, has said that the Federal Government and World Bank are aligning an agenda to create good quality jobs for young Nigerians.
He spoke during an interview after the bank’s Development Committee meeting as part of the Spring Meetings in Washington DC, USA.
According to him, the Governors of the Bank, who are Ministers of Finance of member countries have set a job creation agenda for the institution and that it aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s job creation agenda in Nigeria.
Edun said that the administration of President Tinubu was set to provide crowd-in private capital to grow the economy and boost job creation.
According to him, the government would provide digital infrastructure to enable young Nigerians to have access to the internet.
With that, he said the nation and indeed, other African countries would be able to retain the young people, as opposed to the massive emigration witnessed recently.
Asked to provide an overview of the meeting’s highlights, Edun said: “Basically this is the meeting of Development Committee which set agenda for the World Bank and the Governors have a chance to agree on the agenda going forward.
“The agenda going forward of course is all about the roles of the multilateral financial institutions.
“The governors reinforced the importance of the role of the institutions, particularly the World Bank in setting the development agenda. And in particular, they agreed on the role of the World Bank in the creation of jobs, because of the importance of ensuring that young people have a future, particularly in Africa.
“By 2050, there will be 25 percent of the world population, a young population, so there was emphasis on what is needed to create jobs- a good macroeconomic environment, financial stability and then the drawing in and attracting the private sector to create good quality jobs.
“Not jobs that are transferred from elsewhere but jobs that are created domestically. That was the emphasis.
“That the way out of poverty, the way out of inequality is the creation of jobs.
“This is the same with the agenda of President Tinubu in Nigeria. To stabilize the economy, get investors to come in, domestic investors, foreign investors, so that they can increase productivity, grow the economy and create jobs for young people, in particular, so that there is no question of the young people having to leave the continent, having to leave their countries, to get good paying jobs.
“The idea is to create those good jobs in the country, empower them through infrastructure, and in the case of young people, digital infrastructure- access to data, access to internet, and access to fiber optics networks, that allow them to stay in the country and even provide services across the internet.”
Vanguard
