Why Nigerian economy is not creating jobs for youths – Report

The Nigerian economy is not creating jobs and other opportunities for the young citizens mainly due to human factors that can be surmounted through the right approaches.

This is contained in a report ‘Employment creation potential of industries without smokestacks (IWOSS): A Nigeria case study’, released Thursday in Abuja by the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) and the Brookings Institution.

The report which examines the potential for IWOSS, particularly financial and business services, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and formal trade covered year 2000 to 2020, also shows that the mining sector is worse in lack of job creation.

Presenting the report, a researcher at the CSAE, Mma Ekeruche, said the research shows that the economy is not creating jobs for the young people, when this should not have been the case.

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According to her, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed Africa and more especially Nigeria with jobs declining from 51 million to 31 million, with women and youth mostly affected.

“From 2000 to 2020, jobs have declined in Nigeria. The worst hit is mining, which fell from 29 percent to 10 percent in 2020. Employment growth in financial and business services increased by 24 percent and employed a large number of people.

“Mining can’t absorb large numbers of people and it is on the decrease. The sectors that contributed are the financial and the business sector which is also resilient to shocks. Agro processing, financial and business, ICT, Tourism, formal trade and transportation increase in the share of employment and hold the keys to future jobs,” she said.

She added that highly skills and the female population will be the most needed in the future jobs and that 41m jobs will be created for male, while 16m jobs will be created for females if the needed infrastructures are created and policies implemented.

Ekeruche mentioned some of the challenges that will affect the future jobs to include poor infrastructure, lack of access to finance, corruption, skills gaps, and land policies.

Speaking during the unveiling of the report, the Advisory Partner and Chief Economist, PwC, Nigeria, Dr Andrew Nevin, said music, entertainment, fashion, and cyber security will play a serious role in the IWOSS and that such businesses have a good value chain.

Also, a lecturer with University of Nigeria Nsuka, Prof Emmanuel Nwosu said African countries have not been able to have a substantial value for their export that’s why the export is low.

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