The Nigerian government has received funding support from the World Bank (WB) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to the tune of 44 billion naira (US$269 million) for job creation in the country, according to Thursday’s local media report.
The report quoted the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, as saying the funding was aimed at creating 460,000 jobs across eight sectors of the economy for the next six years, under the Growth and Employment (GEM) Project.
GEM is an initiative of the ministry, supported by the WB and DFID.
“The DFID has provided 90 million Euros as grant and the World Bank US$160 million as concessionary loans for the implementation of the project in Nigeria,” Ambassador Musa was quoted as saying.
The project started running in June 2013 and will expire by September 2018.
The eight sectors identified by the project are the entertainment industry, ICT, hospitality and tourism, meat and leather, light manufacturing, agro processing, construction/real estate as well as whole sale and retail sector.
