Government Scraps Controversial Prime Minister Employment Programme, Allocates Rs 2 Billion for New Domestic Jobs Scheme

The government has scrapped the much-criticised Prime Minister Employment Programme and introduced a new initiative aimed at promoting domestic employment through skills training aligned with labour market demand. Nearly Rs 2 billion has been allocated for the implementation of the new initiative.

The controversial Prime Minister Employment Programme, launched in 2018 by then prime minister KP Sharma Oli, had faced sustained criticism for channeling loans taken from the World Bank and other donor agencies into unproductive work, allegedly for the welfare of party workers. The spending was often criticised for being used on minor tasks such as cleaning roads and drains or building school playgrounds, which failed to generate sustainable employment.

The government has now replaced it with the National Employment Promotion Programme, fully discontinuing the earlier scheme.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Pitambar Ghimire, said the operational and management guidelines for the new programme have already been approved and implementation will begin accordingly. “Around Rs 2 billion has been allocated for the programme, which will now be implemented under a new modality,” he said.

According to Ghimire, the guidelines were approved through a ministerial decision on December 18, 2025, and circulated to all local levels for implementation.

The Prime Minister Employment Programme had been operating under the 2018 guidelines but gradually became synonymous with inefficient spending rather than meaningful job creation.

Meanwhile, the government has declared 2025–2035 as the “Decade of Domestic Employment Promotion,” a move announced during the inaugural session of the National Labour and Employment Conference held on March 10, 2025.

Krishna Prasad Sapkota, chief of the Internal Employment Management Division at the ministry, said the initiative aims to end the compulsion of seeking foreign employment after a decade by strengthening domestic job opportunities.

“No foreign loans will be taken for this programme, and since the guidelines are already in place, implementation will not be delayed,” Sapkota said. He added that the 2018 guidelines governing the Prime Minister Employment Programme have now been formally repealed.

What the New Guidelines Include

Under the National Employment Promotion Guidelines, programmes will be introduced to provide skills training aligned with labour market demand, promote employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship, and utilise the skills, capital, experience and technology of returnee migrant workers.

The programme will target unemployed individuals, job seekers, returnee migrant workers and groups eligible for special state support. Activities will include a minimum employment programme for individuals registered at local employment service centres, reintegration programmes for returnee migrants, and other domestic employment promotion initiatives.

A National Steering Committee chaired by the Minister for Labour will oversee the programme. The committee will include secretaries from the labour, finance and federal affairs ministries, along with a representative from the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

At the provincial level, provincial steering committees will be formed, while local programme implementation committees will be chaired by the head or mayor of each local level. Each local government will operate an employment service centre responsible for managing minimum employment programmes, labour-related services, social security coordination, prevention of child and forced labour, foreign employment facilitation, and entrepreneurship promotion.

Local governments will also be required to analyse labour market demand and supply and design targeted employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship programmes. The guidelines allow for vocational and skills training of at least 390 hours, with 80 percent practical and 20 percent theoretical components, including workplace-based training in collaboration with industries.

The National Employment Promotion Programme will be funded through the federal government’s annual budget, with conditional grants provided to provincial and local governments. Separate accounting will be maintained for programme funds, including those targeted at returnee migrant workers, the ministry said.