Former Anambra state governor Chris Ngige speaks during the second day of the senate screening of new ministers in Abuja, Nigeria October 14, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
Regina Otokpa, Abuja
The Federal Government has disclosed ongoing plans to register more employers associations, besides the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).
Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, made this known at the 2020 Fellow’s Award and the Human Resources (HR) Recognition Ceremonies of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN) on Thursday in Abuja.
According to him, having more employers’ associations in the country would boost diversification of the economy and help smoothen implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
Ngige stressed the need for government to liberalise and accommodate most especially, federations for the different agriculture and agro-allied industries employers as well as mines, indigenous oil and gas employers.
He said: “Government has decided to widen the scope of private sector participation in the Human Resource Management aspect of the Public Sector in conformity with Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) principles on the Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining.
“Therefore, we have put machinery in motion to register new Employers Federations to cover the entire country, besides NECA, which is still circumscribed to Lagos area.
“My ministry will come out with the guidelines for this in the next few weeks as a way of helping the diversification efforts of the government and to prepare us for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) signed by the Government of Nigeria for free trade and exchange of goods within the African continent.”