Some financial experts have urged the federal government to adopt economic policies to enhance the business climate for more investment and create employment opportunities.

They said this in separate interviews on Tuesday in Lagos.

The former executive secretary of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Uju Ogubunka, said the government could check the unemployment rate by improving the general economy.

“The government should tackle insecurity challenges frontally because it is one of the factors undermining investment inflows. While more favourable macroeconomic policies could be initiated to spur the growth of domestic firms and reduce the level of importation,” Mr Ogubunka said.

He noted that the federal government could invest more in electricity infrastructure to industrialise the economy.

This will enable many youth to become innovative and foray into entrepreneurship, thereby creating more jobs and adding value to the economy, Mr Ogubunka said.

Also, the president of the Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Boniface Okezie, said the government could curb unemployment by reviving ailing manufacturing industries.

“The textile industries, for instance, should be resuscitated and give more support because they are the largest employers of labour, rather than creating more Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs),” Mr Okezie said.

He noted that the federal government could allocate more funds for infrastructural development due to its ability to create jobs.

“Infrastructure such as capital projects should be accorded more priority because of its importance in creating job opportunities, especially for all cadres of workforce in the society,” Mr Okezie said.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed in its Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) for the second quarter of 2023, released in Abuja that Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose to 4.2 per cent in the second quarter of the same year.

The NBS defined the unemployment rate as the share of the labour force that was not employed but actively searching and available for work.

According to the NBS, the unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2023, an increase from the 5.4 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2023.

Also, the unemployment rate in rural areas was 2.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2023, a decline from the 2.9 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2023.

It highlighted that time-related underemployment in the second quarter of 2023 was 11.8 per cent compared to 12.2 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2023.

(NAN)