Nigeria needs to create at least 2.3 million jobs annually to halt the growing unemployment rate, the statistician General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale stated this in Abuja.

Speaking at the first edition of Savannah Centre Policy Monitoring Dialogue, Kale said Nigeria must grow local investments, boots local production capability and rely less on foreign goods to make that huge number of employments happen.

“We have our youth’s population from the ages of 18-24, and 25-34. 58.3 percent of those within the ages of 18-24 are either underemployed or unemployed. That’s over half of the youth population and that’s worrying. 58 percent is huge it’s made worst when that age group is the largest in our population, you can imagine the huge number of people without jobs. When you go to the age 25-34, you also have another 35 percent unemployed. That speaks to the huge problem ‘’ he noted.

“In addition to this 58 percent and 35 percent we are talking about, we need to create additional 2.3 million jobs per year to keep the rate constant. I’m not even talking about getting those currently without jobs to get jobs. That is not easy to do except you do the right thing. If we don’t, the gaps will continue to widen” he said.