For more than a decade, Nigeria has been confronted with a massive unemployment crisis. Thousands of university graduates enter the labour market from tertiary institutions on a yearly basis only to roam the street for years searching for non-existent jobs. As youth unemployment rate continues to rise by alarming proportions, fears of possible social unrest become increasingly justified. Ag. Head of Investigations, YEMI OLAKITAN examines the problem with special emphasis on the way forward.
Boladale Muraina is a young graduate of Business Administration from Lagos State University. Just before graduation about six years ago, he had high hopes of working in a bank. In fact, he had his eyes set on Guaranty Trust Bank, where he had an account. Today, he earns a living by riding a tricycle in the Agege area of Lagos, a situation brought about by the need to face the reality that hundreds of thousands of other graduates have more or less the same ambitions, yet the jobs are not there.
For millions of young Nigerians, especially graduates, frustration is the name of the game.
“I graduated from the Lagos State University six years ago with a B.Sc in Business Administration and I am still applying for jobs. It is very discouraging, sometimes the situation makes one wonder if the purpose of getting a higher education has not been defeated after all”, he told our correspondent in an interview.
“I cannot be sitting down at home; so I had to borrow money from my father and an uncle to set up the tricycle business, popularly known as Marwa. I want a job that befits my level of education, because anybody can do that job, even an illiterate. I am a graduate”, he said, wondering when that will be.
Muraina is lucky to some extent; many of his peers have been driven to crime with many of high profile kidnappings in recent years linked to university graduates and undergraduates. For the women, prostitution under whichever guise is the easy option.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s current youth unemployment rate is over 25 per cent. This simply means that over 25 million of the country’s youth population of about 100 million are unemployed. Youth unemployment has been a cause of concern for all well meaning Nigerians for many years while successive administrations have attempted to tackle the problem to no avail.
According to economist and social critic, Chief Bayode Ogunmupe, the problem of youth unemployment aside from insecurity is akin to sitting on a keg of gunpowder. “Aside from terrorism, youth unemployment is one of the greatest threats to national security. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. A scenario in which young men and women graduate from our tertiary institutions with no hope of a gainful employment many years after graduation spells doom for the future of this nation.”
Speaking on possible solutions to the problem, he said, “Investments in agriculture, information technology, sports, arts and entertainment, entrepreneurial education, all these will go a long way in solving the problem. If creatively harnessed, the huge population of unemployed youth in Nigeria may actually be a blessing.”
Only recently, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, charged the Federal Government to prioritise the creation of employment opportunities for the nation’s teaming youths in the 2015 budget, stressing that if the unemployment situation in the country is not urgently tackled. It may lead to a disaster.
According to TUC President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, said, “The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is currently one of the highest in the world, at 24 per cent, particularly among over 50 per cent of our youths in urban areas. There is urgent need for the Government to show more concern by reviewing its policies on youth entrepreneurship, as the high unemployment rate among the youth, especially young women has negative effects on our country’s development, particularly as we approach 2015 general elections. Some of the effects of youth unemployment are seen in political unrest, economic instability, drug abuse, crime, prostitution, human trafficking, terrorism and kidnapping,” he said.
Speaking further he said, “Nigeria is not just sitting on time bombs but as we can see, the bombs are exploding in scores through murderous insurgencies, with the high level youth unemployment in the country.”
According to the International Labour Organization, ILO, unemployment occurs when people are without work and are actively seeking for jobs. The problem is one of the biggest threats to social stability in many countries including Nigeria, putting the global rate at 12.6 per cent. Nigeria’s unemployment crisis is more serious compared to others. For example, South Africa’s unemployment rate is standing at 22 per cent, and Ghana is about 14 per cent, several reports put Nigeria’s unemployment rate at about 24 percent.
The ILO recent Employment Report indicated that lack of structural transformation and high population growth has limited the opportunities for decent jobs in Africa.
Young people continue to be among the hardest hit by the jobs crisis yet, the report suggested that there is little hope for a substantial improvement in their near-term employment prospects.
Analysts have said this is a dangerous trend since the youth holds the key to achieving economic development.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, quoting NBS figures recently in Abuja said no fewer than 5.3 million youths are jobless in the country, while 1.8 million graduates enter the labour market every year. This figure is a conservative estimate of the actual number of unemployed youths in the country, going by previous statistics released by NBS, which put the number of jobless Nigerians at 20.3 million. The minister explained that the unemployment figure has been accumulating over the years. She said the nation’s inability to track the number of people coming into the labour market is a part of the problem of managing the new entrants.
The trampling to death of graduate job seekers during last year’s nationwide recruitment exercise by the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, paints a most poignant picture of the problem.
In Port Harcourt alone, some 25,000 applicants were to participate in a recruitment interview at the 16,000 capacity Liberation Stadium. Over 500,000 young people applied for the 4,500 job openings. Another dimension to the problem of youth unemployment is that young people are made to pay fees to various recruitment agencies, which promise to give often non-existent jobs to desperate applicants. The high unemployment situation has suddenly created an industry of so-called job placement agencies, many of which are quacks and crooks that collect money from desperate unemployed young Nigerians.
While President Goodluck Jonathan administration has recognised the enormous unemployment problem faced by Nigerians, addressing the situation has been haphazard with hurriedly concocted intervention programmes. Some of the initiatives, which appear to be mere variants of what previous administrations before him had adopted programmes aimed at solving the nation’s unemployment problem. Some of these are the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and its skills acquisition programmes, NAPEP, PAP and the recent SURE-P and YOUWIN.
YOUWIN is a business plan competition initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan, to assist Nigerian graduates with business ideas. Anyone who writes an outstanding business plan is being given some fund to start-up a business. The goal for this programme is to increase employment and reduce unemployment.
These intervention mechanisms aimed at ensuring job creation opportunities have all performed below expectations.
Reports reveal that the Federal Government’s job creation efforts such as the have only scratched the problem surface.
Investigations by Sunday Mirror reveals that Federal Government efforts will need to be multiplied and replicated at the state level if unemployment is to be reduced. Conscious effort must be directed at creating an environment that will encourage and sustain entrepreneurship, while investing heavily on infrastructural projects such as electricity, roads, airports and seaports.
Investigations by Sunday Mirror also reveal that a lack of skills relevant to the workplace is one of the problems militating against youth employment in Nigeria.
Young people who have pursued a course of study with a specific career in mind often find themselves with general or theoretical knowledge that does little to prepare them for the actual tasks they will encounter on the job. This is partly due to stale school curricula and poor connections between employers and the educational system.
Many young people also lack specific “21st century workplace skills” such as cooperation, communication, critical thinking and creativity. For many employers most of the young graduates from Nigerian higher institutions are hardly unemployable and will require additional investments in in-house training to get them to fit into roles in their respective organisations.
To succeed in the workplace, young people need to acquire not only skills, but the experience that demonstrates to employers that they are capable of applying those skills to practical business tasks.
There have been arguments that corporate entities need to consider lowering their demands in order to give young Nigerian graduates the opportunity to learn and develop talents in their companies, but the opposite has been the case as employers scale up requirements to enable them shortlist only the best or well connected from long lists of applications.
For Kemi Oladele, a graduate of Linguistics from the University of Ilorin, who easily qualifies as a “veteran job-seeker”, fresh graduates stand little chance of getting jobs as most of the employers seek people with many years of experience.
Speaking with our correspondent, she notes, “Companies are usually looking for applicants with five or even 10 years experience; they do not want to consider those of us who have no experience at all. We have to start somewhere. Experience does not fall from heaven, if they do not employ us. How do we gather the experience? They need to give us a chance. On how she plans to solve her unemployment problem in the New Year, she said, I am just tired of applying. I guess when the time comes my job will find me”.
Yet, the spectre of a nagging social problem spinning out of control looms.
A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Moniru Shittu says, “all levels of government in the country need to be reminded that unemployment, especially among youths, is a dangerous trend for any country. Experience from other nations, has pointedly shown that youth unemployment could provoke violent revolutions. Nigeria has the largest army of unemployed and under-employed youths in Africa. One out of every three Nigerian one is either unemployed or under-employed. Youth’s unemployment is the root cause of poverty, youth restiveness, gangsterism, bank robbery, kidnapping, assassination, and other criminal activities”.
Speaking on the solutions to the problem Shittu said, “Agriculture is the solution. If we mechanise our agriculture, we will produce more food for our country, more raw materials for our industries and we can also engage more people and cultivate more hectares. Agriculture will provide food security and by-products would support and encourage small scale industries. For example, cultivation, processing and export of cassava products have become very lucrative since the advent of global warming and production of ethanol. The world is clamouring for renewable energy that is clean and can be derived from renewable sources such as agricultural products, waste, sun, wind etc. Cassava products are in high demand after all over the world for the production of ethanol, which is preferred over fossil fuels because it does not emit carbon dioxide, which is the major cause of global warming. Cassava is produced in Nigeria abundantly. Cassava alone can solve the problem of youth unemployment in Nigeria. This is just one area that government can take advantage of”.
According to reports, Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava with over 41 million metric tonnes per annum, followed by Brazil, Thailand and Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. Cassava is produced all over the country but more abundantly in all the southern and the middle belt states of the country.
A former Director of Audit, Lagos State University and founder of Omoteso Farmers, Mr. Augustus Omoteso, says Nigeria’s unemployment crisis would persist if the country’s leadership continues to ignore farming as an approach to solving the problem confronting the youths.
He said it is regrettable that Nigeria has vast amounts of uncultivated land lying fallow and yet the youths are without jobs.
“Government can start with 1,000 graduates; put them on six months training on pig farming, you only require six months training for pig farming, then after the training, offer each of them five hectres of land and a paltry N100,000 to start. And in the next six months or maximum one year, these people would be able to employ other employable applicants and even graduates,” he said.
“Only farming can solve our unemployment crisis. Americans have got substitutes for oil but we are still lagging behind. It’s only agriculture that can sustain this country,” he said.
Omoteso, who is also the Secretary of National Agbekoya Farmers Association, Lagos State Chapter and Chairman, Agbeloba Farmer Association-FADAMA Users Group, Lagos State, said pig farming is very profitable, if the farmers would take medication and sanitation of the environment seriously.
A report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on Small and Medium Enterprises shows that the sector manufactures more than 90 per cent of the products used in Nigeria. Similarly, the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, says small scale entrepreneurs are the primary engines of job growth in developing countries.
In the 106 countries studied, small businesses, which represented 55 per cent of all businesses, recorded an annual employment growth rate of 18.6 per cent, compared to a rate of 8.1 per cent for medium businesses with (20-99 employees), and minus 0.1 per cent for large businesses with (more than 100 employees).
Experts have proffered different types of solutions to combat the problem of unemployment. One of them is self employment. Founder of a youth organisation, Project Hope, Pa Ayodeji Ogunjobi, said, “Youths must improve their skills through entrepreneurial training and networking that will make them self-reliant and not dependent on employment that may not be forthcoming”. He emphasised that self-employment is one of the major solutions to the high unemployment rate among youths in Nigeria.
Speaking further, he said the Nigerian government’s practice of awarding major construction works to foreigners with the mindset that Nigerian engineers will not perform such functions effectively should be discontinued. According to him, foreign contractors bring in artisans to Nigeria instead of choosing Nigerians for the work. This is a systematic way of contributing to the already problematic unemployment situation. ‘‘Encouraging schemes like YouWIN is laudable. Establishing more of this kind of schemes by both government and individuals will go a long way to curb the menace-unemployment.”
However, some private sector organisations and non-profit entities have stepped up efforts at creating jobs.
For example, the Rockefeller Foundation is looking at opportunities in creating online jobs as one of the ways to address the problem of unemployment in Nigeria where the ICT sector is the largest in Africa with $18 billion in investments and the highest number of Internet users on the continent. As a result the foundation is partnering with Nigerian non-governmental organisations such as Paradigm Initiative based in Lagos, to introduce digital jobs to young people in Nigeria.
According to Paradigm Initiative, there are hundreds of jobs online that young Nigerians can do and they do not need formal applications or experience, all they need is the right skill to perform the jobs.
According to the group, “The digital economy holds significant potential for creating formal jobs that are accessible to historically marginalised youth. These ‘digital jobs’ – defined as any short-term or permanent positions that use information technology to deliver a product or service – are in the formal sector and therefore provide higher wages and long-term job stability, which are two key mechanisms that enable people to work their way out of poverty.
“Nigeria has a very large youth population, many of whom are unemployed or under-employed. They can take advantage of opportunities within the digital sector. All they need to work is a computer, Internet access and a ready to work attitude. Access to these opportunities is most transformative for disadvantaged youth, for whom accessing formal employment could be pivotal in changing generations of systemic marginalisation; however, these youth are least well positioned to compete for these opportunities as their talent and potential are often overlooked.”
According to reports, the online work sector is estimated to grow to become a $5 billion global industry by 2018. The partnership between Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and the Rockefeller Foundation is expected to build on this momentum by developing an awareness raising campaign and tools that will help connect thousands of Nigerian youth to online work.
The Rockefeller Foundation recently gave a grant of $500,000 to Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) for the expansion of its Ajegunle.org Project.
The project has worked from Ajegunle, an underserved community in Lagos State, to connect Nigerian youths with ICT-enabled opportunities. It employs a ‘train-the-trainer’ capacity building model that uses a positive peer pressure concept to transform Ajegunle as a model for intervention in other underserved communities across Nigeria.
Executive Director of PIN Gbenga Sesan said, “Unemployment is a major challenge in Nigeria. Each year, tens of thousands of students graduate from tertiary institutions but only 10 per cent of them are gainfully employed two years after graduation. Disadvantaged communities account for a majority of these unemployed youth. The digital jobs campaign presents an opportunity for Nigerian youth to generate income and build their digital skills, while preparing themselves for future work in the digital economy”.
Another private sector initiative is the $100 million programme to support and promote entrepreneurship across Africa launched late last year by the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
According to the Chairman of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Mr. Tony Elumelu, the $100 million endowment is “to encourage the maturation of African entrepreneurs”, and to help up to 10,000 budding African entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into sustainable businesses.
Specifically, the programme is to provide 1,000 entrepreneurs a year for the next 10 years with seed capital of $5,000 and additional returnable capital of up to $5,000. According to Elumelu, by making half of the money returnable, programme participants are encouraged to develop a sense of responsibility. “I want to make sure there is some spirit of accountability,” he added.
The application process began this month with the announcement of the initial 1,000 participants expected by the end of March. In order to be eligible for the initial $5,000 seed capital, successful applicants will have to go through a 12-week online mentoring and training programme.
CEO of Tony Elumelu Foundation, Dr. Wiebe Boer, said the businesses supported by the program are expected to create at least one million new jobs and generate $10 billion of new revenues.
Beyond the promise of receiving financing, mentoring and support, entrepreneurs have an additional incentive to apply – the chance of having their business noticed by Heirs Holding as a potential investment opportunity.
Elumelu believes that the initiative will enable African entrepreneurs transform the continent. “In 2015 the African entrepreneur will emerge on to the global stage, as a new generation shows the world what those of us doing business in Africa have long known: that our continent is home to some of the most exciting and innovative entrepreneurial talent.
“From advanced mobile-payment systems to new agricultural-insurance models, we are already seeing how entrepreneurship is transforming Africa. But in Africa, business growth alone is not the full story. It is perhaps not even the most important part. Entrepreneurship matters especially for its potential to transform society.
“For centuries, the continent was impoverished by the extraction of raw materials by colonial powers. Africa was unable to generate or sustain its own wealth, as it was forced to buy finished goods created with African resources at premium prices.
And it lacked basic infrastructure except for the roads and ports built to move exports. If Africa is to transcend that chapter of its history and realise its economic potential, it must first become self-sufficient – and the private sector is vital to this process.
“Imagine the same continent filled with businesses that can process crude oil into petroleum, cocoa pods into chocolate and cotton lint into fabric, all while retaining the finished-goods premium instead of sending wealth overseas.
As homegrown businesses meet social and economic needs by creating goods and services with an innate understanding of the local environment, they can bring private capital to vital infrastructure like road transport and power generation. And they can create jobs for Africans, which will in turn create an African middle class – a new generation of African consumers,”
No comments:
Post a Comment