Labour administration system key to effective industrialization policy – Ngige
By Ukpono Ukpong
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has called for the integration of labour administration system in the formulation and execution of Nigeria’s industrialisation policies/ strategies.
He said the integration would lead to increased economic growth and improved standard of living.
The minister made the call in a keynote address at a two-day annual senior officers’ conference of the professional departments of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and its agencies.
Ngige, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Yerima Tarfa, stated that the overall objective of the labour administration system is to promote industrial peace and security necessary to attract the vital investment for industrial growth and development.
Ngige noted that labour being a human component is the most critical agent in industrial growth and development.
He observed that successive governments had pursued various industrialisation policies/strategies ranging from craft and artisanal production to the current diversification efforts anchored on agricultural revival, but declared that what has been lacking in all these efforts is the integration of labour administration system in their formulation and execution processes.
Ngige however, pointed out that the Buhari administration had sought to integrate labour administration system in its policies, such as the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which has investing in people as one of its cardinal objectives.
The minister disclosed that a lot of efforts were ongoing to lay a sound foundation for the industrialisation of Nigeria with the ministry playing key roles in those efforts.
Ngige therefore, tasked the ministry on improving labour administration system in Nigeria to the extent that it serves as a springboard for industrialisation.
He also charged the ministry to reexamine its role and work models, and boost its capacity to respond as a catalyst to industrialising Nigeria.
The minister called on the participants to use the opportunity of the conference to review and strengthen the ministry’s role in coordinating the national labour policy by coming up with practical steps to improve areas where there are challenges in carrying out the ministry’s mandate.
Earlier, Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Yerima Tarfa, posited that sustainable economic growth and development in the country could only be achieved if labour administration system was recognised as a vital economic activity and allowed to drive the process.
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According to him, “if Nigeria is to make meaningful economic progress, those with the right expertise which rightly includes the system of labour administration must not be excluded from the process of economic development.”
He stated that the conference would afford the participants the opportunity to develop a scheme for the upliftment of labour administration in Nigeria.
Tarfa called on the officers of the ministry and other participants at the conference to come up with a labour administration system capable of driving the economic development of the country.
