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By Chukwuma Umeorah
The Centre for Financial Journalism (CFJ) has charged the federal government to prioritise investing in its populace to unlock the huge inherent potential required to guarantee a sustainable future.
The Centre made the call in its 2024 edition of its bullion lecture held recently in Lagos where it raised concerns about Nigeria’s inadequate investment in human capital development (HCD) highlighting potential long-term consequences for the nation’s socio-economic development.
The Centre emphasised the critical need for Nigeria to prioritize areas of education, healthcare, vocation and value orientation of the people.
The guest speaker and the Vice Chancellor of University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi, while delivering a lecture titled “Human Capital Development: Catalyst for Nigeria’s Prosperity”, underscored Nigeria’s failure to fully utilise its abundant human resources.
Urging more government effort, she said; “The true wealth of a nation is not in the volume of natural or mineral resources that it has, but in the development of the minds of its citizens. Nigeria’s investment in education is one of the least in Africa with N1.54 trillion, about 6.39 per cent of its budget which is far below the 20 per cent recommendation of UNESCO. The health sector has not fared any better as the country as the country has failed to meet up with the African Abuja Declaration of 2001 of allocating 15 per cent of the country’s annual budget for the sector.”
According to her, education remains the bedrock of development and failure by successive governments to prioritise this has led to the massive brain drain witnessed across all sectors.
The chairman of the event and Vice Chancellor of Babcock University, Prof. Ademola Tayo, corroborated Obi, stressing the urgent need for collective action to address the matter in view of the catastrophic effects it may have in Nigeria.
He highlighted disturbing statistics of poverty and out-of-school children, as reported by international organisations, painting a grim picture of Nigeria’s current situation.
Tayo pointed out that, “Nigeria’s alarming poverty rates have surpassed even countries with larger populations like India,” and highlighted the continent’s struggles with multidimensional poverty and security challenges, all of which he said have hampered growth.
Furthermore, he attributed Africa’s weak performance in global economic indicators to human capital deficiencies, calling for concerted efforts to reverse this trend.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of CFJ, Ernest Ebi earlier in his welcome address urged stakeholders to harness ideas from the lecture and amplify the advocacy for the betterment of Nigeria and the global community.
He said that “The Bullion Lecture series which started in 2015 has continued to serve as a platform for all stakeholders including government to drive discussions relevant for nation building and policy formulation.”
