The Chairman of the Kwara State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Faruk Akanbi, has called on the federal and the state government to find a lasting solution to the epileptic power supply in a bid to solve unemployment problems across the country.

Mr Akanbi, who made the call while speaking with our correspondent, said many companies such as textile industries have closed down, while some have relocated to Ghana and South Africa due to unfavorable economic situation and unstable power supply.

According to the NLC chairman, “stable power supply will ensure low cost of production and enable companies to generate profit to pay their workforce. Government has idea, but the political-will has not always being there in most cases.”

Speaking on minimum wage, he said N18,000 minimum wage could no longer meets the current reality, explaining that the N18,000 is not up N1,500 minimum which was put in place by Shehu Shagari in 1980.

“The major problem is that the federal government is having too much in term of the federal allocation; the federal is able to play with too much money which enable so much money to flow into National Assembly and political elites to the detriment of the infrastructural development and industrialization of this country,” he said.

“Only few states in this country are able to meet up with the N18,000 minimum wage; they are either oil producing states or those that have industrialised their economy like Lagos, Ogun and Kaduna, which enable the government to secure high Internally Generated Revenue from tax,” he said.

Mr Akanb,i however, urged banks to give low interest loans that will favour industrial climate to companies, stressing that Bank of Industry needs to recapitalize the failing industry in the country in order to resuscitate them.