Stipend payment: NECA expresses concerns

Barely days after the Senate asked the Federal Government to initiate a sustainable unemployment fund for the payment of living stipends to unemployed Nigerians, the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has expressed concerns over the workability of the policy in Nigeria.

The Director-General of NECA, Timothy Olawale said that the resolutions seemed possible and workable because it would help unemployed youths by giving them disposable income, he also noted that it is pertinent that the government addresses some fundamental issues before the implementation of the policy.

Olawale called for the accurate data of the number of Nigerians qualified to benefit from such social security gesture. He said that since this plan has the potential of changing the general hopeless state that has taken over the youths, it is important to guard it so that it will benefit the actual unemployed people without any form of dubious transaction.

Speaking further, The NECA DG hoped that this time, the intervention would be impactive because so far, all the social intervention programmes had been cosmetics and short-term in nature without potential to solve the real issues of unemployment.

Olawale’s words: “It is important to know the number of Nigerians that are actually unemployed to forestall the programme becoming another scheme bedeviled with patronage.

“Also of importance is the funding and administration of the project. The project was not captured in the already passed 2020 Appropriation Bill, thus it is worrisome where the funds to bankroll it will come from. It is hoped that government will not further burden the already overtaxed private businesses.

“Government at all levels must take a more than cursory look at the private sector. More deliberate effort should be put in place to support the organised private sector to grow and create employment by ensuring a favourable operating environment.

“Businesses are currently overburdened with different forms of taxes and levies, inadequate infrastructures and unfriendly regulatory environment. Herein lies the solution to the teething unemployment scourge of our nation,” he said.