ILO and Nigeria to jointly promote green jobs opportunities

Abuja (ILO News) - The Director of ILO Country Office, Abuja, Mr Dennis Zulu, on Monday 11th July 2016, met the Honourable Minister of Environment of the Federal Government of Nigeria, Mrs Amina J. Mohammed, to explore the possibilities of working together to promote the creation of green job opportunities in Nigeria.

Mr Zulu highlighted the fact that ILO worked on green economy and green jobs especially in creating decent job opportunities in areas such as construction sector with green jobs concept, renewable energy, afforestation, waste management including e-waste. He stated that within the Decent Work Agenda, the focus is not only on creating jobs, but also on creating quality jobs.

The Honourable Minister underscored that the purpose of the meeting was to get a better understanding of ILO’s work in Nigeria with an aim of identifying possible areas of partnership between the ILO and the Ministry in the area of green jobs and a green economy.

Mrs Amina J. Mohamed informed Mr Zulu that the Ministry was realigning itself with the new government’s priorities of enhanced security, accountability and job creation for its citizens. She further explained some of the ongoing initiatives that the Ministry was implementing including the Great Green Wall Project, Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) and the clean-up exercise for the Niger Delta Region.

The Minister pointed at capacity gaps that needed to be addressed and requested ILO’s support in putting together a three year programme that would contribute to the creation of green jobs in Nigeria; a proposal welcomed by the ILO Director which could be shortly formalized with the signature of an ILO and Nigeria Memorandum of Understanding to cement the agreed area of collaboration and cooperation.

Mr Zulu emphasized the existence of the ITC-ILO training centre in Turin, Italy that offers a range of courses on the green economy, green jobs and other areas of the Decent Work Agenda. He assured the Minister that ILO in collaboration with ITC/ILO would explore the different options and models of training which would be developed to meet the specific needs of the Ministry in addressing the identified capacity needs.

Dennis Zulu highlighted that ILO would support the participation of the Ministry at the Academy on Green Economy scheduled from 3-14 October 2016 at the ITC/ILO, Turin, Italy.

The meeting was also attended by Hon.Ibrahim Usman Jibril, Minister of State for Environment, Dr Bukar Hassan, Permanent Secretary as well as trade union leaders attended the meeting in the Ministry.

Mr Zulu also took the opportunity to share some of the key activities that the ILO was undertaking towards supporting Nigeria in repositioning its development path in the light of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with particular reference to Goal 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth.

In Nigeria, the Organisation has supported the review of labour laws, the development of the national employment policy, child labour policies and labour migration policies. The ILO had also assisted the government in the rehabilitation of trafficked victims, creation of employment opportunities for youths in the agriculture sector and capacity building programmes for the tripartite plus partners.