The World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) supported the Federal Government with over N44 billion to create 460,000 jobs across eight sectors of the economy under the Growth and Employment (GEM) project over the next six years (2013-2018).

Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment represented by Yunusa Labaran, GEM Project Coordinator, disclosed this during a programme for GEM Entertainment Cluster workshop held in Lagos.

“The DFID has provided 90 million Euros (about N18.5 billion) as grant and the World Bank $160 million (about N25.6 billion concessionary loans for the implementation of the project in Nigeria,” he stated.

The Permanent Secretary stated that the programme started running from June last year and will continue till September 2018. He said the programme was been put in place to create jobs and also help increase production in non-oil sector

The Permanent Secretary, explained that the project has identified eight sectors based on their growth and employment potential and they are: Entertainment industry, ICT, hospitality and tourism; light manufacturing and agro processing; construction/real estate as well as whole sale and retail sector.

He said that GEM has three main area of focus, “To address gaps that prevent key growth centers from expanding and hiring more Nigerians; to provide technical assistance and linkage services to small producers in the eight sectors to enable them to supply local and global supermarket chains. The project is also aimed at improving the business enabling environment so that the businesses can grow faster, and become more profitable