To reduce the rate of unemployment in the nation, the government has announced plans to create some three million jobs next year at home and abroad. Though the number seems massive as compared to the experiences so far and the country’s current economic development, some hope that the ongoing projects could widen the chance of realizing the planned goal.
Ethiopia is home to a predominantly young population, which accounts for about 70 percent of the total population, it needs to effectively use its human resource to ensure holistic benefit, says Dr. Tilaye Kassahun, a consultant and Assistant Professor at St. Mary University.
According to Tilaye, due to the imbalance of demand and supply and the limitation of economic power, Ethiopia has not taken as many youths to engage in jobs during the past many years.
“Preparing a national human resource plan which used to run human power there with proper use of finance is playing a significant role to reduce the unemployment rate. As part of this, the plan also helps to create responsible citizens that play a positive role in improving their livelihoods and their nation’s economic development’’, he advised.
He added that a triangular approach- create a strong linkage between skills and knowledge, business development support, and value chain are crucial issues for a fruitful outcome.
Furthermore, with the absence of a value chain approach, products are not adequately shipped from producers to customers. In this regard, it is obvious that Ethiopia is challenged by demand and supply linkage due to the shortage of transportation system during the past years.
To avail job opportunities for three million citizens each year, the government should apply research-based releasing of funding and collecting the loan.
The existence of increasing construction sector, greenery project, river water project, expanding industrial parks, expanding of manufacturing sectors, and progress of economic development are good opportunities for Ethiopia to address the unemployment rate.
On the other hand, Ethiopia is one of the most populous nations in Africa, so it is a good opportunity to expand market demand. But ensuring sustainable peace should exist in all parts of the country to achieve the goal, he added.
On the other hand, a sense of quality concessions has a significant role in citizen attitude.
Countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and India are the best examples of job creation for their citizens due to their strong economic strategy. Especially, India leads by the very complex economy in the world but citizens are enjoying their daily lives due to many job opportunities. While Rwanda is the nearest one which can be the best example for Ethiopia, Tilaye added.
Abozench Negash, Coordinator of Communication at Federal Urban Job Creation and Food Security Agency said that as compared to the total unemployment rate in the country three million citizens are small. Yet the exact number of unemployment rate needs further assessment. But, the plan is the engine of expanding job opportunities in the future.
Currently, the Agency has opened a job opportunity to citizens on regular working and mega projects. Regular jobs include micro-manufacturing, construction sector, urban agriculture, service providing, and trade while likes sugar factories and Great Ethiopian Renaissances Dam is under mega projects.
In this regard, the Agency secured over 88,000 citizens, 81 percent from a plan of 1.8 million citizens enable to engage in jobs in the 2018 fiscal year. More than 712,000 citizens from a plan of 730,000, 97 percent performed on mega projects in the same year. To sum up, close to 88 percent enabled to perform through the regular and megaproject, she describes.
According to her, before entering to different jobs, the Authority has provided training to trainees in collaboration with Technical and Vocational Education and Training Sectors. In addition to this, providing shades especially for graduated youth, input providing, and supervising their working is secreting way of best result during the past one year. However, it does not conclude that no problem exists in the aspect of the job creation arena.
Particularly, the existence of resource limitation, awareness creation, traditional document handling, and some limitation of market linkage are serious challenges of the country during the past many years to figure out the exact number of employed citizens. However, the increasing of leader’s commitment towards job creation is a chance to create more jobs in the nation in the actual time.
In this regard, the Chamber of Job Creation Sector which was led by vice minister some years ago, but now led by the prime is an advantage of job creation expanding. It shows that the government gives high attention to the job creation sector, she noted.
The Ethiopian Herald July 27/2019
BY MESERET BEHAILU
