With a total of 22.4 million Nigerians unemployed or
under‐employed out of the
76.9 million total labour force, Worldstage Economic Summit (WES) 2016 will be hosted in Lagos
between September 7- 8, 2016 to address the unemployment challenges in the
African biggest economy, reports ITRealms.
President/CEO, World Stage Limited, the organisers,
Mr Segun Adeleye, said the alarming rate
of unemployment in Nigeria is not only of great concern to the three tiers of
government, but also to the private sector and other critical stakeholders of
the economy on job creation.
“While some people see it as an indictment on the
educational system that seems to be churning out ‘unemployable graduates’ it is
also being seen as an economic deficiency, with economy having a limitation of
the labour force it can sustain by its productivity,” he said.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate of 10.4 per cent, he
said, represents about 14 per cent of global unemployment in fourth quarter
2015, the 7th highest in the world with only Kenya, Congo and Djibouti having
worse rates in Africa.
“This should be embarrassing when compare with
countries such as Qatar (0.2 per cent) unemployment rate, Cambodia (0.3per cent),
Belarus (0.5per cent), Thailand (0.8per cent), Benin (1.0per cent), Madagascar
(1.2per cent), Laos (1.40per cent) and Guinea Bissau (1.80per cent),” he said.
He said the statistics that job loss in Nigeria
dropped by only 1.29per cent in Q4 2015 at a period when oil price crashed by
65per cent could only show that there are other inherent factors outside oil
that shape the labour market, which will be reviewed at the summit.
On how an economic summit can address unemployment
challenges, he said, Nigeria is in an era where Nigeria’s economic problem can no
longer be left in the hand of government to fix alone. There are organisations
and experts that have the knowledge of how to solve economic challenges of any
kind, but in most cases, they are either not talking at the right forum, or
they are not being heard.
"At WES 2016, the government side is going to be
represented by ministers, members of the National Assembly, head of regulatory
agencies, CEOs of public corporations, top official from state governments; and
they will be interacting with representatives of the organised private sector
along with local and foreign experts, to discuss series of the sub-themes
through which the problem of unemployment in Nigeria will be tackled,” he said.
Adeleye also aid made reference to the challenges facing state
governments to the extent that they can no longer pay salaries as at when due,
saying these can be addressed with the right concept of how to explore economic
potentials to create private sector jobs.
“With about
65 per cent drop in oil price since 2014, Nigeria’s main source of income, the
revenue allocations to the Federal Government, States and the Local Government
have dropped drastically with most states now finding it almost impossible to
pay workers’ salaries. This has become one of the greatest challenges facing
Nigerian economy, as the elected governments are becoming aware that they may
not be able to deliver the electoral promises and dividend of democracy if an
urgent solution is not found,” he said.
“Besides providing knowledge base for government on
how to save billions of naira in revenue, diversify economy, create jobs and
end the practice of committing the largest portion of income to the payment of
civil servants’ salaries, WES 2016 will help review the economic potentials of
the states and arrive at sustainable development strategy for them to be
economically viable with or without revenue from federation account.”
He listed the objectives of WES 2016 to include; To
identify and proffer solutions to the growing unemployment problem in the
public and private sectors of Nigerian economy; To identify the employment
generation potentials of every sector of the economy from ICT, Maritime,
banking & finance, mining, aviation, construction, oil and gas and others
and then address what they need to realise the full potential; To connect new
entrepreneurs with financiers and skilled workers for them to be at the driving
seat of job creation; To connect employers with job seekers and enhance
migration of skills across all sectors;
To generate a national unemployment data bank; To assist government on policies to make the
economy productive, global competitive and generate jobs; To help review the
economic potentials of the states and arrive at sustainable development strategy
for them to be economically viable with or without revenue from federation
account; To provide knowledge base for
government on how to save billions of naira in revenue, diversify economy,
create jobs and end the practice of committing the largest portion of income to
the payment of civil servants’ salaries.
On how WES 2016 will not end like others past
summits at home and abroad with nothing to show for them, he said, “When one
deploys a conventional solution to a problem, the result will still be the same
old story. It’s easy for government agencies to announce that they want to
create thousands or millions of jobs, but how they will do it is very critical,
and has to be tested to be sure that they are on the right track. They will
need the right knowledge base to achieve it and carry other stakeholders along.
Governments and institutions have to invest in time and knowledge to think
outside the box on how to address economic challenges, and when the solutions
are found, they have to try all possible best to apply them to achieve
desirable result. What is unique about WES is that it’s research driven. If the
obstacle to job creation in a particular sector of the economy has to do with
legislature, the National Assembly Committees involved will be at the WES 2016
and will be made to understand what is expected of them and why they must act
fast. The WSE will then do the necessary following up on all resolutions of the
summit to ensure that they are not thrown into the dustbin.”
The expected participants at the summit include the
Presidency, National Assembly, MDAs, State Governments, OPS- Oil and Gas,
Banking, Insurance, Maritime, Aviation, Mining, Agriculture, Hospitality &
Tourism, Entertainment, Construction, Power, ICT, Education, Transportation,
Local and Foreign Investors, Media and Other Relevant Stakeholders.
World
Stage is the operator of leading source of business information in Africa, WorldStage
Newsonline. Also, WorldStage publishes TrueColour, the African dream magazine
that celebrates the positive side of Africa.
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