AFRICA, Nigeria, House Rejects Bill to Give Unemployed Graduates Allowance

The House of Representatives yesterday threw out a bill seeking to provide monetary incentives to all unemployed graduates in Nigeria.

Sponsored by Rep Arua Arunsi (PDP, Abia) the bill sought to amend the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) Act 2004 to cater for unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions who could not secured employment.

Arunsi had argued that the bill was to design and implement programmes to combat mass unemployment for graduates that are between the ages of 18 to 35 years and also between third to fifth year of post graduation experience. However, many MPs stoutly opposed the second reading of the on the ground that it failed to meet critical criterion of filling gaps inherent in the existing laws it was seeking to amend.