The wish of the House of Representatives Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity is to see that the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, headquarters moved out of a rented apartment to the structure allocated to it by the federal government very soon.
The chairman of the committee, Engr. Mohammad Ali Wudil, made the remark on Wednesday when he led his committee to the permanent office site of the NDE on oversight function.
The building is under construction at Gudu district of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
According to a statement made available to FrontPage by the Assistant Director, Information and Public Relations, NDE, Mr. Israel Adekitan, the legislators were at the construction site to assess the level of work.
The Director-General of the NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, who received the committee appreciated the visit and expressed optimism that the visitation would aid the quick completion of the project.
The Director-General appealed to the House Committee to assist in ensuring early completion of the project through adequate appropriation in the 2023 budget.
He said the building is huge, capital intensive and required adequate funding.
The Director-General observed that the funds made available for the project in the 2022 appropriation was a far cry from what is needed to do a significant work.
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He pleaded to the House Committee to assist the Directorate in speeding up the completion of the building.
According to the Director-General, “Now that the House Committee is here on oversight function to assess the progress of work, it is our hope and belief that more funds will be released to complete the building; by that, much money will be saved in terms of rent payment on the hired building we presently occupy as headquarters.”
The legislators who spoke shared the passion of the Director-General and affirmed that it was better for the federal government to release funds and complete the project rather than allow the Directorate to remain in the circuit of rent payment for too long.
The House commended the efforts of the Director-General at ensuring speedy completion of the project.
The chairman who expressed satisfaction over the progress of work described the building as gigantic with massive partitions.
He said, “I know that the funding on the project is small and slow. With this inspection we can see that with little money allocated, partitions are made, piping is done and work is in progress.”
He added that “with the inspection, the House committee will make the National Assembly to understand the need to improve on the funding of the project.”
Earlier in the year while visiting the project site, the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who is the supervising minister of the NDE and chairman of its board, expressed his desire to have the office building commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari before the expiration of his administration.
The building which was a hotel was allotted to the NDE at carcass stage to be used as official headquarters in 2019.
The building is being redesigned to suit the purpose of NDE as offices with intelligent system of accommodation.
Skaldon International Limited, the main contractor of the project had expressed its fear that the building might not be completed at the stipulated time due to poor funding
NDE was established in November 1986 to checkmate unemployment in Nigeria.
It went into full operations of employment generation and job creation in January 1987.
NDE started-off without a building it could call its own.
As a result of the inability to secure permanent building as headquarters over the years, its operations were bedevilled with high burden of huge debt arising from office accommodation both from the states where it operates at the grassroots and the headquarters where policies are formulated.
