Unemployment:Employers Wants Increased Support For SMEs

The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association,NECA,has urged urged the Federal Government to refocus its efforts at supporting organised businesses to increase their production capacities, and to support micro, small and medium enterprises to enable growth from bottom up.

Its Director-General,Mr Timothy Olawale, who gave the advice in a statement said a critical impact-audit of current interventions should be made to determine their effectiveness and relevance in the context of current realities.

He expressed concern  over  the growing unemployment rate as released by the National Bureau of Statistics,saying the figures  were worrisome and expected.

According to him, the fundamental issues arising from COVID-19 and its negative effects on businesses had not been addressed sufficiently, despite initiatives put in place by the government.

He added:“While the figure showed that the unemployment crisis is worsening at an alarming rate, it is also instructive to note that the socioeconomic factors that increased the figure to 27 per cent in the last NBS release remains.

“The recent economic recession has exacerbated the unemployment rate as major sectors of the economy have stagnated with negative growth, though the nation exited recession in February 2021.”

He said many businesses had yet to recover from the pandemic effects as insecurity had caused many in the Northern region to close shop.

He stated  that access to critical foreign exchange to import inputs was low while the regulatory environment remained largely unfriendly.