The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment have had a long, robust and smooth relationship spanning a period of 60 years.

ILO our dependable partner – FG

Mr William Alo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment said this when the ILO Country Director, Mr Dennis Zulu and his team visited him on Friday in Abuja.

According to him, ILO is a dependable partner of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Federal Government.

“The Ministry has benefited from the relationship in many ways and that has made the country maintain her pride of place in the comity of Nations on Labour issues.

“This has also gained the country the position of a member of the Governing Board of ILO, which is a testimony that Nigeria has paid its dues in respect of Labour issues,” he said.

Alo, however, said Nigeria, as a pathfinder, has introduced innovations to decent work environment and maintained a harmonious relationship with its workers through responsive legislation in line with global best practices.

NNPC Recruitment: Remove age limit or risk protests, NANS warns

“We preach peace as well as good relationship to our workers, which are key to increased productivity as no economy succeeds without enabling and peaceful environment for its employees,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary, therefore, called for more support and cooperation of ILO in the provision of decent work for Nigerians.

He also congratulated the ILO on the forthcoming Centenary celebration of its existence and 60th anniversary of ILO in Nigeria.

Earlier, Zulu, the ILO Country Director, said that the essence of his visit was to familiarise himself with the newly-posted Permanent Secretary and to intimate him of the existing programmes of ILO in collaboration with the ministry.

He noted that Nigeria was currently facing the challenge of unemployment, like other countries.

Zulu assured that ILO was ever committed to supporting the ministry in implementing its National Employment Policy aimed at reducing the number of unemployed youths in the country.

He said ILO has been an important partner of the ministry and pledged more collaboration with the ministry towards achieving its mandate.

“ILO has been working very closely with the Ministry since 1959 when the first ILO Office was opened on the continent in Lagos, Nigeria.

“This year is very important to us because ILO is not only commemorating 100 years globally but also celebrating 60years of ILO in Africa and Nigeria in particular.

“ILO is working with member states on Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP), with the workers represented by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), and employers represented by the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA).

Egypt supports Sudan people, army in post-Bashir era: ministry

“DWCP is a document prepared in collaboration with the ministry, which states the priorities of collaborating for a fixed period of four years, and we implement our support through this document.

“The programme that we had, came to an end in 2018, and we will be expecting the Ministry to lead the process with our support to working out a new programme for the coming four years,” he said.

He added that ILO would also be hosting a Global Youth Employment Forum, scheduled for August; a very important event with participants drawn from across the world, and for the first time the Director General of ILO would be coming to Nigeria to participate in the forum.

Zulu said efforts were ongoing to put in place the logistics needed for the events and requested for more collaboration with the Ministry for the success of the forthcoming programmes.