2025 Budget: N46bn Inadequate To Meet Nigeria’s Employment Challenges — Minister

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, has called for an increase in the ministry’s 2025 budgetary allocation, emphasizing the need for enhanced funding to address Nigeria’s critical employment and skills development challenges.

Speaking during the 2025 budget defence meetings with the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Employment, Labour, and Productivity in Abuja on Monday, the minister argued that the current allocation of N46,079,960,544 for the ministry and its parastatals is insufficient to effectively address the nation’s growing labour and employment issues.

Dingyadi highlighted that a higher budget would allow for the renovation, reconstruction, and re-equipping of skills development centres under the ministry and its agencies across the country. These centres play a vital role in generating sustainable employment through skills training, which the minister said is key to alleviating the country’s unemployment crisis.

The minister noted that skill development programmes not only create long-term employment opportunities but also contribute to national economic growth. Dingyadi stressed that these programmes align with one of the central pillars of the federal government’s Renewed Hope agenda, particularly the objective of job creation.

He explained, “One of the key priorities of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is job creation, which falls under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. For us to achieve this noble objective, we need special funds to renovate, reconstruct, and re-equip the skills development centres under the ministry and its agencies across the country.”

The minister also pointed out that while many of the infrastructural projects in the current year’s budget could create jobs for Nigeria’s youth, most of these positions would be unskilled and unsustainable. He warned that many workers involved in these projects would be left unemployed once the projects are completed.

Dingyadi argued that the most effective solution to unemployment lies in creating skilled jobs, where trainees can set up self-sustaining businesses with starter packs provided after completion of their training. This would not only contribute to the economic growth of the nation but also empower individuals to create their own opportunities, rather than relying on temporary, low-wage work.

“The best solution to unemployment is the creation of skilled jobs with starter packs, where trainees will set up their own self-sustaining jobs to contribute to the economic growth of the nation,” he added.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Senator Diket Plang, echoed the minister’s sentiments, stating that the ministry’s budget deserved a boost to ensure it could effectively carry out its critical functions.

Also commenting on the issue, Hon. Adefarati Adegboyega, chairman of the House Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, emphasized the importance of skill development as a driver of sustainable economic growth. He noted that while short-term relief efforts such as palliatives can provide temporary solutions, long-lasting employment solutions could only be achieved through programs that focus on skill development and self-reliance.

Both committee chairmen underscored the need for a more substantial budgetary allocation to enable the ministry to implement its vital programmes aimed at tackling unemployment and driving economic development through skills training. The discussions set the stage for continued deliberations on the 2025 budget, particularly regarding funding for critical sectors like labour and employment.