Geneva (Switzerland) – The Federal Government on Wednesday requested for support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in capacity building to ensure the attainment of decent work and sustainable development in the country.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, made the request when he paid a courtesy visit to the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder in his office in Geneva.
Ngige said “we want your assistance in the areas of technical cooperation; we want to ask for ILO support in terms of institutional and capacity building.
“Others are the social dialogue institution, the negotiation council, the public and private sector, industrial arbitration panel, the National Industrial Court for Labour disputes related issues.
“We also want to see to the formularisation of the informal economy and labour-based technology for employment generation in our rural areas.”
The minister said that the Federal Government had on several occasions met with the ILO deputy director general of operations and the deputy director general for governance and tripartite on ways to move labour issues forward.
He added that “most of these discussions were aimed at giving us technical assistance for us to move with the programmes that would move our country forward.”
He said Nigeria would also require intensive programmes for labour officers and factory inspectors on enforcement of labour laws.
He noted that Nigeria planned to revive its Labour Advisory Council which had been dormant for over five years in order to ensure industrial harmony in the country.
“We also want the labour body to assist the country with experts in labour laws to help in the review and easy passage of existing labour laws in the country
“We want to also strengthen our child labour law in the country and also carry out a lot of sensitisation on this issue.”
The minister said Nigeria was the first country to ratify the International Convention on Child Labour and also put in place a Child Labour Law.
He then urged the ILO to assist the country for effective implementation of the Child Labour Law in Nigeria.
He, however, renewed the government’s request for the ILO to upgrade its office in Nigeria to a multi disciplinary office while calling on the Director General to visit Nigeria as none had ever visited the country.
“That is why we as a country will need lots of technical assistance available at the ILO to do that,’’ he said.
The Deputy Director General, Governance and Tripatism, Mr Moussaka Oumarou, said there was need to put more emphasis on train the trainers programme.
He said the ILO would do its best to assist Nigeria to get back factory inspectors and assist in other areas of need put forward by the Nigerian delegation.
On his part, the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, assured the Nigerian delegates that the organisation would assist the Federal Government in whatever capacity it could concerning decent work and suitable development in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those present at the visit include the NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, the Director General of Nigeria Employers Consultative Assoication, Mr Segun Oshinowo, among others. (NAN)