THE World Bank has committed $160 million to the employment and
growth project geared towards the development of enterprises in Nigeria,
while the United Kingdom Department of International Development is
providing a grant of $100 million.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga made the disclosure in Abuja, yesterday, while inaugurating an inter-ministerial committee to oversee the project.
The National Steering Committee for Growth and Employment project, headed by Aganga, as its chair is expected to deliver results on the impact of the facilities from the agencies in the next six months.
According to Aganga “This project is very important to government and the economy. The growth employment project is an employment project by the ministry supported by the World Bank with a loan of $160 million while the United Kingdom department of international development is providing a grant of $100 million.”
He explained that the project is aimed at job creation and increased growth in specific high potential value chain sector.
Aganga said after sectors with potential growth in the economy had been identified, it became obvious that those identified areas would affect the rapid growth of the economy in tandem with the plan of the federal government in its industrial revolution plans.
According to him, “it is expected that the project will run from June 2013 to September 2018 would create a minimum of about 460,000 jobs, 110,000 of that would be direct and about 350,000 will be indirect jobs. The areas we have identified that are also areas of focus in the industrial revolution plans and the national enterprise development program are about eight of them. It included the services sector and the light-manufacturing sector.
“In the services sector you have the ICT, whole sale and retail trade, you have hospitality and tourism, these are all areas that would create a lot of jobs and have the potentials for growth.
The minister said those are the areas the World Bank study identified as areas of strong influence in the economy that would generate a lot of employment.
He said the project has been put in place supported by the two agencies to remove the obstacles to growth in those sectors and increase the competitiveness of these sectors noting that the fundamental part of the industrial revolution plan is competitiveness.
The project, Aganga explained would complement the industrial revolution strategy and enterprises development strategy.
He said the project would fund localized infrastructure and address gaps in fibre optic backbone for Nigeria to compete in the global market place and it will also address new business model, which would provide technical assistance and linkages services to the small producers in the eight targeted sectors to enable them to supply local and global supermarkets chain and also support local construction companies to improve quality, low cost innovation and production standards and help to improve the business environment.
Aganga stressed that the number of services that would be required has been identified in each of these sectors; number of enterprises that would support in each of these sectors and some of the enterprises will receive grants.
All these he said is geared towards removing obstacles to growth and making sure that issues concerning the sectors are addressed.
The Sector Leader Finance and Private Sector World Bank, Michael Wang said the project will create a platform for enterprises to relate with one another in the country and bring different knowledge to bear while they would also have access to financial services and all other services they should have access to.
“We have enough plans and provision to ensure that with consistency, by the time the project is over, we should be able to reach 10,000 enterprises throughout the federation”, he said
Source Nigeria Guardian News
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga made the disclosure in Abuja, yesterday, while inaugurating an inter-ministerial committee to oversee the project.
The National Steering Committee for Growth and Employment project, headed by Aganga, as its chair is expected to deliver results on the impact of the facilities from the agencies in the next six months.
According to Aganga “This project is very important to government and the economy. The growth employment project is an employment project by the ministry supported by the World Bank with a loan of $160 million while the United Kingdom department of international development is providing a grant of $100 million.”
He explained that the project is aimed at job creation and increased growth in specific high potential value chain sector.
Aganga said after sectors with potential growth in the economy had been identified, it became obvious that those identified areas would affect the rapid growth of the economy in tandem with the plan of the federal government in its industrial revolution plans.
According to him, “it is expected that the project will run from June 2013 to September 2018 would create a minimum of about 460,000 jobs, 110,000 of that would be direct and about 350,000 will be indirect jobs. The areas we have identified that are also areas of focus in the industrial revolution plans and the national enterprise development program are about eight of them. It included the services sector and the light-manufacturing sector.
“In the services sector you have the ICT, whole sale and retail trade, you have hospitality and tourism, these are all areas that would create a lot of jobs and have the potentials for growth.
The minister said those are the areas the World Bank study identified as areas of strong influence in the economy that would generate a lot of employment.
He said the project has been put in place supported by the two agencies to remove the obstacles to growth in those sectors and increase the competitiveness of these sectors noting that the fundamental part of the industrial revolution plan is competitiveness.
The project, Aganga explained would complement the industrial revolution strategy and enterprises development strategy.
He said the project would fund localized infrastructure and address gaps in fibre optic backbone for Nigeria to compete in the global market place and it will also address new business model, which would provide technical assistance and linkages services to the small producers in the eight targeted sectors to enable them to supply local and global supermarkets chain and also support local construction companies to improve quality, low cost innovation and production standards and help to improve the business environment.
Aganga stressed that the number of services that would be required has been identified in each of these sectors; number of enterprises that would support in each of these sectors and some of the enterprises will receive grants.
All these he said is geared towards removing obstacles to growth and making sure that issues concerning the sectors are addressed.
The Sector Leader Finance and Private Sector World Bank, Michael Wang said the project will create a platform for enterprises to relate with one another in the country and bring different knowledge to bear while they would also have access to financial services and all other services they should have access to.
“We have enough plans and provision to ensure that with consistency, by the time the project is over, we should be able to reach 10,000 enterprises throughout the federation”, he said
Source Nigeria Guardian News