The Minister said the current administration has created more than seven million jobs in the agriculture sector in the last two and half years.
He said this while addressing State House Correspondents after meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
According to Ngige, the creation of ‘blue collar’ jobs received a boost because of the economic diversification policy of the government.
He said: “We promised jobs when we came on board, but what has happened is that people tried to quantify jobs in terms of ‘white collar’ jobs for graduates from universities, polytechnic but they don’t want to look at the ‘blue collar’ jobs.
“Agriculture and its chains alone have created more than five to seven million jobs. I am talking in terms of rice from rice tilling, harvesting, sending to the paddies, mills, and even where people are making the jut bags, transportations, people are getting jobs. “So, that value chain alone from agriculture is enormous. Take the N-power, we have created millions of jobs from here, skill acquisition from the National Directorate of Employment(NDE) and other agencies of government, jobs are being created. We give them tools as plumbers, electricians, cosmetologists, shoe makers, tilers and several other areas. We have created several jobs.”
Earlier, Ngige revealed that Buhari had approved nominations into the committee for a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
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