Vice-President Kashim Shettima has said the low labour force participation occasioned by the staggering unemployment rate in Nigeria must be reversed.Shettima made the promise during the launch of the Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Strategy Document and Gender Transformative Human Capital Development Policy Framework in Lafia, the state capital, on Saturday.He emphasised that the administration’s goal is to empower Nigerians with globally competitive skills that will enable Nigerian workers to excel both domestically and in the international job market.He said, “Enough of the distressing data on our education system—whether it is the mean years of schooling, the high pupil-to-teacher ratios, or the staggering number of youths not in employment, education, or training. The unemployment rate, the growing informal sector, and low labour force participation must be reversed.“This is the dystopia our Human Capital Development Programme is designed to avert, under the mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. For so long, at the National Economic Council, we have debated the ideal nation we wish to build and the pathways to achieve it.”The Vice President regrets what he described as the tragic reality of the ECOWAS region being ranked the lowest in the global Human Capital Development Index.“Rather, it is an invitation for every country, and indeed sub-national entities, to rise to the challenge,” he added, pointing out emphatically that “every child must have access to quality education, equitable healthcare, even as the nation’s workforce must be equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in the 21st-century economy.”The VP attributed the launch of the strategy document and policy framework in Nasarawa to the leadership and vision of Governor Abdullahi Sule, describing it as a forward-thinking approach that makes a difference.Announcing that the government at the centre has already moved beyond the first phase of the HCD by adapting strategies to current realities and shifting from theory to implementation, he said Nasarawa’s entry at this pivotal stage is a promising sign of progress.Earlier, the governor thanked stakeholders for supporting the Human Capital Development programme, noting that Nasarawa State Investment and Development Agency was established to help improve the economy of the state.He said the youths in the state would be engaged positively in agriculture, health, and entrepreneurship, just as he assured that the state’s strategic document on Human Capital Development would be strictly implemented to guide its interventions in various sectors.
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