ABSTRACT

The issue of unemployment is at the front burner of policy discussions in both developed and

developing countries today. This is because, when left unchecked, the scourge of unemployment

has the capacity to destabilize the most peaceful of societies and crash the most buoyant of

economies. The study assessed the contribution of the National Directorate of Employment

(NDE) to unemployment reduction in Ekiti State between 2011 and 2015. The NDE was created

in 1986 to combat mass unemployment in Nigeria and has been operating a state office in Ekiti

State since 1998. In pursuant of its mandate, the NDE designed schemes such as the National

Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS), the Enterprise Start-up Development Training Scheme

(ESDTS) and the Micro Business Skills Training Scheme (MBSTS), among others, which are

aimed at imparting job-specific skills to beneficiaries. However, despite the continued

implementation of these schemes in Ekiti State, the rank of the un