An economist with the Department
of Economics, University of Lagos, Akoka, Dr Femi Saibu has declared that Federal
Government (FG) policies on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
revolutions were not production and manufacturing-sector oriented, reports
ITRealms.
Speaking as lead guest
at the WorldStage Economic Summit 2016 in Lagos, Dr. Saibu said Nigeria’s
revolutions in ICT policies were merely employment destructive and service
oriented.
According to him, government
direct employment policy only created temporary jobs not employment at a greater
cost while the series of youth entrepreneurship scheme across the country
including ‘YouWin.’
He stressed that these
series of jobs always ended up in creating social media entrepreneurs with no
employment multiplier.
The Small and Medium
Enterprises Credit Guarantee Scheme, he cited for instance, had failed to
achieve its objective as the funds were difficult to access and politicized,
while “people see it as share of national cake and generate little if any
employment.”
At the summit organised
by World Stage Limited with
support from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Shell Nigeria, United Bank for
Africa, Bank of Industry and Zenith Bank, the scholar said what the country
needed were large scale industrial set up that can mop up the thousand of
unemployed youths.
He said the country
needed the establishment of businesses with value chains in productive sectors
with greater employment multiplier and government spending in key sectors to
provide basic infrastructures that reduce cost of business.
“Not direct
underemployment of youths in any disguise that create fiscal cliff. Innovations and
technology that lead to higher productivities and not those that take jobs from
men to machines," he said.
Other economic
stakeholders who spoke at the summit chaired by Mr Soji Adeleye, MD/CEO, Alfe
City Institution include, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, Director, Department of Petroleum
Resources, Mrs Omolara Aromolaran, MD/CEO, Crown Natures Nigeria Plc , Dr.
Gloria Elemo, Director General/CEO, Federal Institute of Industrial Research
(FIIRO), Mrs Efua Edeh Executive Director, Junior Achievement Nigeria,
Barrister Sunday Oduntan, Executive Director, Research &
Advocacy, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, among others.
Barrister Oduntan in his
presentation ‘Getting The Power Sector Right To Boost Productivity’ said the
power sector was facing many surmountable huge and difficult challenges that
had made it unable to play its role as the engine of growth for job creation.
“The whole electricity supply chain still remain comatose; the promised
increased generation and reliability as part of privatization –has not
happened; generation continued to hover in the mid-range of 3000 to 4000 Mega
Watt; energy theft and meter bypassing are very rampant; and insufficient
number of meters due to liquidity gap and massive shortfalls,” he said.
Additionally, he said “GENCOs have been bedevilled by gas supply issues, cost and vandalization of
gas pipeline networks in Nigeria, delay and frustration in construction power
plant sometimes on land and contract” noting that there is hope for
the sector if some milestones such as funding of liquidity by subsidy and private sector fund, incremental generation, stability and security in generation
we can achieved.
“Revenue gap from minor
review must fully recognise the variance in forex applied by Gencos and drop in
generation for six months,” he said.
Other milestones he
prayed for include that MDA debts must be paid, focus on transmission funding
and security of power supply, cost-reflective tariffs for DISCOs, strong and
independent regulator, continuous and sustained investment on electrical
infrastructures particularly TCN, aggressive metering across the board must be
sustained.
The DPR boss represented
by Mr Kanmi Ayodeji, Manager, Planning, in a presentation ‘Nigeria’s Oil &
Gas Reforms- Boosting Indigenous Participation & Energy Security’ said
current reforms, initiatives and strategic plans in the oil sector were capable
of boosting economic growth and create jobs.
He mentioned reforms
such as initiated the modular refinery strategy to boost domestic
refining capacity, improve supply of petroleum products and create direct and
ancillary jobs.
He said
automated operational processes of DPR had improved “transparency of
government’s regulatory roles of the Industry, effective administration of all
critical operational and planning data and revenue for government and DPR.”
The FIIRO boss who was
represented by Dr Dele Oyeku, Director, Extension & Linkage, said there was
no reason why Nigeria should be facing unemployment crisis if government can
implement the research findings of institutions such as FIIRO.
For instance, he said
there was an initiative on cassava substitution for wheat in baking which can
generate millions of jobs across the country.
The CEO of Crown
Natures, Mrs. Aromolaran who spoke on ‘Addressing youths unemployment through
capacity building and skill acquisition’, said “our problems as a nation will
come to an end once we become a manufacturing state.”
She also noted that
Nigeria and Nigerians needed to start producing what are essential to enhance
our economy and create jobs.
“Nigeria has always been
a country that tackles problems with one strategy. The situation requires us to
tackle it with multi strategies, whatever we can do individually should be
done, and little by little we shall begin to see our problems getting solved.
The situation on ground is not new, but we need Nigerians to realise that every
individual has a part to play in economic rejuvenation.”
Also in her paper on
‘Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship for Job Creation’, Manager, Marketing and
Communications, Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), Tobe Ifeanyi who represented
her boss spoke about how non-governmental agencies could help in solving the
unemployment problem in Nigeria, saying, since inception, over 650,000 students
in more than 750 schools in 29 locations across the country had been assisted
with the help of over 1000 volunteers.
According to her, JAN
provided free programs to youth aged 5 to 27 based on its 3 pillars for
success, which are entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial
literacy, with the mission to inspire & educate young people to become
conscientious business leaders, by implementing skills necessary for personal
success and social responsibility.
In his welcome address,
the President/CEO, World Stage Limited, Segun Adeleye said that the alarming
rate of unemployment in Nigeria should not only be of great concern to the
government, but also to the private sector and other critical stakeholders in
the economy.
He said, “Though
unemployment is a global problem, but for us in Nigeria, it is endemic, as our
high population growth is out of proportion with the economic development and
productivity.”
Adeleye called for the
acceptance, promotion, and utilization of made by Nigeria goods, saying,
“Look around us from what we are wearing to what we are using- they are almost
all imported- which implies that as we are buying them, we are creating jobs
for them in China and other places with nothing for us to do here. This is
unacceptable, and it makes the WorldStage Economic Summit (WES) 2016 with the
Theme: ‘Addressing the unemployment crisis in Nigeria’ very relevant.”
He explained that the
theme of the summit was inspired by the need 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 Agriculture, ICT, Maritime, banking & finance,
mining, aviation, construction, oil and gas and others and then address what
they need to realise their full potential; To help review the economic
potentials of the state and local governments and arrive at sustainable development
strategy for them to be economically viable with or without revenue from
federation account; To assist government on policies to make the economy
productive, globally competitive and generate jobs; 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 among others.”
He assured participants
that the summit will not end like similar conferences on Nigeria with little or
nothing to show for them, as it was already being pushed online and in the
social media through the #WorldstageEconomicSummit2016 for the sake of other
stakeholders that were not fully represented at the summit.
He said the
presentations at the summit will also be made available to the government, and
there will be necessary follow up on all resolutions with all stakeholders.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
Pix: L-R: Mr Kanmi Ayodeji, Manager Planning, Department of Petroleum Resources, representing Mr. Mordecai Ladan, Director, DPR; Mrs Omolara Aromolaran, MD/CEO, Crown Natures Nigeria Plc; Tobe Ifeanyi, Manager, Marketing and Communications, Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN); and Dr Dele Oyeku, Director, Extension & Linkage, Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), representing Dr. Gloria Elemo, Director General/CEO, FIIRO, at the WorldStage Economic Summit 2016 at the Lagoon Restaurant, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday, November 16, 2016. Short URLs: goo.gl, mcaf.ee, cli.gs
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