CURBING UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL DIRECTORATE OF EMPLOYMENT ANAMBRA)

ABSTRACT
The research work focuses on graduate unemployment and how the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has helped in curbing it in Anambra state. The work is aimed at determining the cause and effect of Graduate Unemployment in Nigeria, highlight various policies and programmes put in place by the Government to curb unemployment, assess the National Directorate of Employment and find out problems (if any) hindering the effective performance of the directorate and provide possible solutions. Data was collected from both primary and secondary data while the systematic sampling method was used in determining the sample size and the opportunistic sampling method was used in its administration. Statistical tables and charts were used in the data analysis. It was discovered that inadequate awareness and poor funding of the activities of the NDE in Anambra State undermined its activity, and that skills acquisition is an effective tool in reducing graduate unemployment. Consequently, specific skills acquisition schemes have been recommended as elements that could empower unemployed graduates; that specific skills acquisition schemes should be included in the curriculum of post-secondary schools. Organising symposia, seminars and using the media were some of the recommendations made for improvement on the awareness of the activities of the National Directorate of Employment.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The global economic depression which started in the early 1980’s has caused a rapid deterioration in Nigeria’s economy industrial output has become very low and commercial activities are hull leading to loss of employment by thousands of Nigerians through retrenchment and rationalization in many industries. Furthermore, the formal educational sector lame continued to turn out a teaming of graduates annually without a matching increase in employment opportunities.

This trend was confirmed by the labour force survey conducted by the national manpower board in 1966/67. The situation had become so bad that by the end of 1985 the unemployment situation had reached desperate and alarming proportions (10%-12%) not only in the urban area but also in the rural area while 1974 was limited to the urban centers. The resultant effect is the increase in different kinds of antisocial activities such as house breaking arrived robbery drugs trafficking etc.

In an effort to redress the situation and stem the tide of increase anti-social activities arising from youths unemployment January 1987 set up the national directorate of employment (NDE) with the aim of institutionalizing schemes to support the self-employment aspirations of the Nigerian youths. Various development plans had it as an objective to effectively solve the problems of unemployment. This has led to the initiation of various agricultural development programmes.

Banks and industries were set up in the rural areas to give jobs to the rural dwellers many other programmes and polices were established but were not effective enough as to restructure the economy. Privatization and commercialization of certain government establishment led to workers being laid off from their jobs resulting in greater unemployment. This situation then made it necessary for the establishment of national directorate of employment (N.D.E) to combat the grooming problems of unemployment.

Comments and characterization abound on the various dimensions of unemployment. To the International Labour Organisation (1982), Unemployment can be said to occur when a person is available and willing to work but currently without work. One is forced to ask how many Nigerians are willing and available to work but are currently without job. Frank and Bernard (2001), in their book titled “Principles of Economics” noted that the unemployment rate in a nation is too significant to be ignored as it is necessary in assessing the level of economic activity in a country. Besides real GDP, one statistics that receives a great deal of attention from both economists and the general public is the rate of unemployment. The unemployment rate is a sensitive indicator to the conditions of the labour market. When the unemployment rate is low, jobs are secure and relatively easier to find. Low unemployment is often associated with improving wages and working conditions as well as employers competing to attract and retain workers.

In nations, most especially, developing countries like Nigeria unemployment serves as a major yardstick for development as was rightly portrayed in Dudley Seers definition of development. Seers (1969), asserted that the questions to ask about a country’s development are therefore: what has been happening to poverty? What has been happening to inequality? What has been happening to unemployment? If all three of these have declined from high level, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development for the country concerned. If one or two of these central problems have been worse especially if all three have, it would be strange to call the result “development” even if per capita income doubled. What then will you think of an able-bodied young man who is a graduate and currently unemployed, with a lot of dependants waiting on him for survival, or a young family man who was doing very well in a leading financial institution and was suddenly, laid off due to the Economic Recession? The right-sizing and downsizing in Federal Parastatals has also led to a considerable loss of job. Victims of all the aforementioned situations are likely to pass through psychological trauma due to job losses, that is, if they are strong enough to withstand the embarrassment of being laid off and subjected to subsequent unemployment.

In an analysis of unemployment problems in Nigeria, Onosode (1982) stated that: Economic Development is about people and people are the most important resources required to bring an about development. When large numbers of people suffer hardship and deprivation because of inadequate opportunity in the National Economy for gainful employment, whatever level of development is achieved becomes of questionable value. Besides, when able-bodied men and women are involuntarily unemployed, the nation is underutilizing its most important resources and realizing less than its full potential in development.

Finally, when the rate of unemployment is intolerably high, it may be impossible to prevent the desperate unemployed from disrupting productive processes and thereby making the employed less productive apart from the threat it possess for the maintenance of law and order except perhaps under threat of grossly repressive laws. The effect of unemployment as noted by Onosode (1982), which ranges from underutilization of human resources, economic hardship, social and civil unrest, pose as threats to the much-desired development. How then did this situation emanate? What are the causes of unemployment? The costs of unemployment in any society cannot be overlooked or overemphasized, as every remedy that will be proffered has to look at the root cause of unemployment in the nation. In a bid to address the menace of unemployment, various policies have been put in place by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Notably, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) was established in 2003 to promote the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector of the Nigeria economy. It is to source, process and disseminate business information, develop policy, establish business support programme, build capacity and promote services, enhance MSME access to finance.

Another of such programmers is the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) Limited which is dedicated to financing agriculture at both micro and macro levels. They are to provide affordable financial and advisory services to the farm and non-farm enterprises of the Nigeria economy using well trained and highly motivated staff, backed by appropriate technology. Others which were established but later scrapped include: the Directorate for food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures otherwise known as (DFRRI), Mass Mobilization Self Reliance and Economic Reconstruction (MAMSER) and the National Agricultural Land Development Project (NALDA) created by the Babangida regime but scrapped by the Abacha regime.

The average unemployment rates in Nigeria for the decades of the 1960s and 70s were about 2% and 4.5% respectively (National Bureau of Statistics), which was considered both physically and economically sustainable. Unfortunately, in 1985 it rose to 8.5% which was considered high. Thus, as a result of the rising rate of unemployment and its possible consequences, the Federal Government of Nigeria established a committee in 1986 to proffer solution to the menace (unemployment). The committee’s recommendations formed the basis for the establishment of the “National Directorate of Employment” in 1986 with the aim of curbing and reducing the rate of unemployment through skills acquisition, self employment and labour intensive work scheme.