NATIONAL DIRECTORATE OF EMPLOYMENT (NDE OFFICE) - Port Harcourt, Nigeria

The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) was established in November 1986. It began operations fully in January 1987. The birth of the Directorate was predicated on the effects of the economic recession of the 80’s which led to a drastic reduction in capacity utilization and consequent outright closure of industries in Nigeria. Equally, other macro-economic policies of the government of the day such as structural adjustment programme (SAP), devaluation of the Naira, privatization and commercialization of the economy, etc. resulted to massive job losses in both the public and private sectors of the economy. According to the Annual Report of the NDE 2013, unemployment rate had risen from 4.3% in 1985 to 7.0% at the beginning of 1987 because of the situation earlier stated.

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direct response to the rising trend of unemployment, the then military government headed by General Ibrahim B. Babangida, set up a committee headed by Mr. Stephen O. Chukwumah which was later to be popularly referred to as the Chukwumah Committee. The Committee was charged with the task of proffering a sustainable interventionist solution to mitigate the rising levels of unemployment in Nigeria. The Committee established that the informal sector of the national economy had operators and employees who were mainly low skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. They constitute about 90% of the workforce. This situation therefore, placed skills acquisition and training on the front burner of employment creation. Following the report of the Chukwumah Committee, the Federal Government established the NDE under decree No. 29 of 1989 which was replaced with ACT, CAP 250 of the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.