By  Naomi Uzor

The  Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), has urged the Revenue Allocation Mobilization and Fiscal Commission (RAMFC) to dust from the archives its previous intention to review downwards the salaries and allowances of public office holders to release scarce funds for capital projects that will create enabling environment for economic growth and investment to enhance job creation activities to absorb able bodied Nigerian youths and graduates.

The President of NACCIMA, Dr Simon Okolo made this statement in his visit to Vanguard recently, adding that government at all levels should seek employment of all Nigerian graduates and drastically reduce the high unemployment record.

“It is unfortunate that Nigeria does not have accurate data of her unemployed graduates that could help in planning, though available official estimates indicate there are 80 million young people, representing 60 per cent of the entire Nigerian population of over 140 million people. Out of these, only 16 million according to official sources are employed, leaving the remaining 64 million available for crime, armed conflicts and hooliganism”he lamented.

According to him, since the advent of easy money from crude oil, Nigerians have become averse to the culture of maintenance as people in authority wait till our roads deteriorate to the state they are impassable before they award huge contract running into billions and by so doing, feather their nest also.

“The question is why we can’t maintain our roads and other infrastructures? Among these unemployed graduates are civil-engineers, etc.

Why cant we deploy them under the supervision of senior engineers and members of the Army Engineering Corps to construct our roads, bridges and put up electrical poles for electricity distribution lines so that with transformers installed, distribution capacity of PHCN will be increased and little by little, we will by so doing help solve the problems bedeviling our country”he stated.

Okolo said another important challenge is to transform our import driven economy of today into an export-oriented and globally competitive one through the acceleration of reforms in the power and transport sectors and provide access to credit for small and medium scale businesses through a functional monetary system that will help the naira attain grater value, ensure low inflation and stable low bank lending rates.

Furthermore, he said dire situations call for adoption of belt tightening measures that sometimes require that the three tiers of government should find areas where savings can be made by cutting public spending.

“An easy way out is by reducing the size of the state, already there are too many public institutions and bodies duplicating each other. It is high time government learn to operate leaner, meaner structures that also serve to reduce red tape in the system” he said.