From left to right: Tobias Wolfgarten, Team Leader – GIZ Youth Employment Skills Development Project (SYKE) in Lagos; Aisha Agbaje, Principal Special Assistant to the Governor of Lagos on Development Partners; Sam Egube, Economic Planning and Budget Commissioner, Lagos; Teju Abisoye, Executive Secretary, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF); Hans Ludwig Bruns, cluster coordinator, GIZ Sustainable Economic Development Cluster (SEDEC) in Nigeria; Ms Ronke Azeezat, Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Council (LASTVEB) at Lagos4Jobs: Platform for Public-Private Dialogue on the State Labor Market, at Eko Hotels and Suites on Victoria Island on weekends.
The Lagos State Government has revealed that the formulation of a data system for the labor market, as well as capacity building for skills development with technical and vocational education and training are essential to reduce the unemployment rate at a minimum level in the state and the country as a whole. .
The design and creation of the information system should provide accurate and reliable data on the current employment status of residents for job creators, employers, applicants and other stakeholders.
This was revealed at an event organized by the Ministry of Economic Planning and State Budget in collaboration with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) and German Cooperation GIZ held at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, tagged: In the Labor Market in Lagos State.
Lagos government’s decision targets young people to tackle high unemployment in the state; close the gap between the availability of employment and employability in the labor market and increase the participation of young people in technical and vocational education.
Economic Planning and Budget Commissioner Sam Egube said: “To drive initiatives around job creation, it is essential to develop a system that provides accurate and reliable data on the current situation. employment of residents of Lagos State. A platform where several stakeholders can synergize their information, expertise and activities together to achieve the common goal – job creation and employment.
“A Labor Market Information System (LMIS) will aggregate the data of residents of Lagos using unique identification numbers like LASRRA number, the tax identification number to track the employment status of residents in with a view to developing initiatives that stimulate and continue to support employment and job creation. said Egube.
The commissioner said that there is a consensus on the need to tackle unemployment, especially among young people in Lagos State, saying that the activities of different stakeholders in the private and public sectors are currently inconsistent, which poses a huge challenge. He also stated the need for dialogue sessions between key players to share and deliberate on ways to bridge the gap.
“There is consensus on the need to tackle unemployment, especially among young people in Lagos State, the activities of different stakeholders in the private and public sectors are currently fragmented,” he said.
Tobias Wolfgarten, team leader of the GIZ Skills Development for Youth Employment (SYKE) project in Lagos, said the dialogue would provide a means for various stakeholders to deliberate on relevant areas of job creation. ; different aspects of skills development and sustainable growth for decent work.
He said subsequent meetings of all private and public sector stakeholders in Lagos State, as well as some of the state-based federal government agencies, would chart the way forward for the technical working groups, where discussions on topics such as: Technical and vocational education and training (TVET), employment promotion, digital transformation, migration, reintegration and the enabling environment for business to revive the creation of ‘jobs will be discussed.
“We would like to develop and implement, applying policies for sustainable progress in the areas concerned; which is job creation, the special creation of decent jobs. Also the sharing of skills, knowledge and expertise on different aspects of skills development and sustainable growth for decent work. Then, the determination of key responsibilities between the different stakeholders and the facilitation of the human execution of the capacity building.
“The structure will be at two levels, we will have a plenum of all relevant stakeholders from the private and public sectors of Lagos State and some of the federal agencies based in Lagos that can make a contribution in the area of ​​employment. sustainable.
“This plenum of stakeholders will meet several times a year where we can discuss in technical working groups, where we can discuss certain topics such as TVET and promotion of employment, digital transformation, migration, reintegration and the enabling environment for business, â€he said.
