Following the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) a fortnight ago that the Nigeria’s unemployment rate stands at 23 percent with about 112.5 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty; the Federal Government has taken measures in partnership with other economic-concerned stakeholders to ameliorate the situation.

The NBS report indicated that on the assumption of a population of 150 million, 60.9 percent of Nigerian population- approximately 100 million people live below the poverty line of $1 or N160 per day. It further revealed that the number of Nigerians living in abject poverty increased from 54 percent in 2004 to 61 percent in 2010.

In reprisal, the Federal Government organized a workshop – ‘Promoting public service excellence’- to seek ways to improve the agricultural sector as well as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This it believe will channel the country towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and also enable participants to be aware of the various procedures that will fast track the transformation agenda of the government.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga has offered to help the national and state government to tackle the prevailing problem of food scarcity and unemployment by contributing its technologies and knowledge towards boosting agriculture. He said the yellow cassava varieties developed by the institute could help make the state improve the nutrition of people suffering from vitamin A deficiency.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has entered a partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Investment to enable the Federal Government set up effective policy on agribusiness. UNIDO has previously work with Nigeria in developing its industrial sector.

Nigeria has secured an investment commitment of about N34 billion from eighteen companies in agribusiness and agro-allied sector.