Job creation efforts of the federal government will remain a mirage and an exercise in futility as long as the government remains allergic to doing the right things that have the potential to put the economy on the path of sustainable growth as well as returning it to equilibrium.
This was the submission of a United States (US) consultant/investor, who insisted last week in Lagos that as long as the government continues to cling tenaciously to the petroleum sector as opposed to up-grading the country’s non-oil sector, its quest for job creation will remain an idle fancy.
Professor Thomas Andrew O’Keefe, chief executive officer (CEO) of Mercosur, who is a consultant to the US government, said Nigeria can scarcely make any head way in her efforts to create jobs because of over reliance on petrochemical deposits.
He regretted that Nigeria has failed to take advantage of the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa) designed to give African countries access to the US market adding that the scheme is part of the assistance of the US government to sub-Saharan African countries to address their hydra-headed socioeconomic problems including rising unemployment.
Agoa provides duty-free and quota free market preferences for about 6,400 products including apparels, footwear and nuts among others from sub-Saharan African countries to the US markets until 2015. O’Keefe regretted that Nigeria along with other West Africa is lagging behind on Agoa.
This was the submission of a United States (US) consultant/investor, who insisted last week in Lagos that as long as the government continues to cling tenaciously to the petroleum sector as opposed to up-grading the country’s non-oil sector, its quest for job creation will remain an idle fancy.
Professor Thomas Andrew O’Keefe, chief executive officer (CEO) of Mercosur, who is a consultant to the US government, said Nigeria can scarcely make any head way in her efforts to create jobs because of over reliance on petrochemical deposits.
He regretted that Nigeria has failed to take advantage of the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa) designed to give African countries access to the US market adding that the scheme is part of the assistance of the US government to sub-Saharan African countries to address their hydra-headed socioeconomic problems including rising unemployment.
Agoa provides duty-free and quota free market preferences for about 6,400 products including apparels, footwear and nuts among others from sub-Saharan African countries to the US markets until 2015. O’Keefe regretted that Nigeria along with other West Africa is lagging behind on Agoa.
