By Ameh John
In a bid to boost its efforts on job creation, the Federal government has recently engaged the Government of India in a collaboration towards enhancing Nigeria’s Skill Acquisition Centres.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, said this in Abuja when he received the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Abhay Thakur and his entourage.
According to the Minister, “over 5000 Skill Acquisition Centres are scattered across the country and the resuscitation of these Centres would assist the Nigerian government create more employment and entrepreneurs in the country”.
While he appealed to India to key into the Local Content Capacity programme for mutual benefits by creating jobs for Nigerians and profits for Indians, Ngige further called for the revival of the Labour capacity building programme, an exchange programme between Nigeria and India, which trained a lot of Nigerian Labour Officers in Indian Labour Institutes, as part of technical assistance to Nigeria; which was stopped in 2013.
The Minister went on to urged the Indian Government to protect Nigerians working in India by providing labour protection and ease of doing business for Nigerians living in India.
“Nigeria and India have a lot in common and a robust relationship that has span many years in the area of trade, education, labour, foreign Affairs and there is need to further strengthen the bilateral relationship.” He added.
Aldo, the Minister of State Labour and Employment, Professor Stephen Ocheni, called for continued partnership with India in the areas of reciprocal interest especially in consular issues.
Earlier in his remarks, the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency, Abhay Thakur, commended Nigerian government for providing an enabling working environment for Indians to conduct their businesses in the country.
He said that India looked forward to training Nigerians in the Indian Labour Institutes, as well as maximising the use of local content or services in running their businesses in Nigeria.
The High Commissioner disclosed that the two countries have excellent relationship and India was looking at the possibilities of having a direct flight from Nigeria to India.
