The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Thursday, said the department of inspectorate at the ministry would clamp down on companies who closed shops without paying any entitlement to its staff.

Ngige made this known while responding to the issue which was raised by the president of Trade Union Congress, Quadri Olaleye, during the union’s courtesy call to the minister in Abuja.

Olaleye said companies like Vitamalt and UTC refused to settle their workers’ entitlement after closing up, describing it as an act of breach of agreement and maltreatment of workers by employers.

The minister said that his ministry was aware of the situation and that by next week, officers from the inspectorate department would deal with companies involved.

He said, “On the issue of closing companies without dealing with labour issue, the inspectorate department will deal with it. We will take up the matter of Vitamalt and UTC but we will be interested if TUC can give us more names so that our state offices can visit them. From next week, we should be able to tackle that matter.”

READ ALSO: FG moves to create first disability data bank in Nigeria

At the meeting, the minister said Africa had around 335 million youth population with only 20 per cent of them gainfully employed.

He noted that out of the 80 per cent that was not employed, Nigeria accounted for 33 per cent. He described unemployment as a national emergency that must be fought by Nigeria.

He said unemployment was the cause of insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other social menace plaguing Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria was making effort to convert its large population size to improve on its Gross Domestic Product, saying that in the last 20 years, no government had diversified the economy like the present regime.

Ngige said, “Today, we can beat our chest and say that 90 per cent of the food we eat in Nigeria are produced locally. We produce 95 per cent of the rice we eat.

We are also going into mining and manufacturing. At times, it looks like the Central Bank is backsliding on its policy, no; it is to make sure industries do not close down so that workers can work.

“The National Employment Council was declared open today. The government realised there was an emergent problem that must be tackled.”