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The recent rating of Nigeria as a country with the highest unemployment rate in the world is disturbing. Despite efforts by successive governments to tackle the problem, it has persisted. It has also become a time bomb that will put the country in serious trouble if not well handled.
According to the World of Statistics, Nigeria tops the global unemployment league table at the rate of 33.3 per cent. Among the top five are South Africa, 32.9 per cent; Spain 13.2 per cent; Greece, 11.2 per cent and Colombia, 10.7 per cent. Top five countries with the lowest rates include Switzerland, 2 per cent; Singapore, 1.8 per cent; Thailand, 1.05 per cent; Cambodia, 0.36 per cent; and Qatar, 0.1 per cent. The acceptable level of unemployment is between four and six per cent.
For Nigeria, the unemployment rate has been on a steady increase. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had put the rate at 23.1 per cent in 2018. It rose to 33.3 per cent since 2020 and may have surpassed this rate by now. Youth unemployment is 42.5 per cent. Recently, a multinational consulting firm, KPMG, said Nigeria’s unemployment rate climbed to 37.7 per cent in 2022. In a report titled ‘Global Economy Outlook’, it projected that the rate would rise further to 40.6 per cent in 2023 and 43 per cent in 2024. KPMG added that this problem would not likely abate due mainly to low industrialisation, limited investment by the private sector, slower-than-required economic growth and the inability of the economy to absorb the five million new entrants into the job market annually.
This is frightening. In many cities and even in the hinterlands, many able-bodied youths roam the streets doing nothing. Most of these youths, who graduate from different higher institutions every year, are not prepared to be self-employed. In most cases, their education is tailored towards looking for white collar jobs. The companies that will absorb them are very few. Over 100 multinational companies have divested from Nigeria due to poor infrastructure and harsh operating environment and relocated to some other countries. They include Pfizer, Leventis, Dunlop and Michelin. Even many of the existing ones are struggling to stay afloat. Some have downsized their workforce.
Only very few Nigerian youths are willing to become entrepreneurs. After a few years of being self-employed, some of them get frustrated either by certain government policies or some other extraneous factors. Apart from loathing skills acquisition, some youths engage in fraudulent activities and money-making rituals. Many choose to migrate abroad in search of greener pastures. However, only very few make it abroad and they are mostly highly sought-after professionals like doctors and nurses. The high rate of crime in the country has a link to the rising unemployment. Idle youths are easy recruits for terrorism, banditry and cultism. The Boko Haram terrorist group is operating in some parts of the North. The so-called unknown gunmen have wreaked havoc in different parts of the South-East region. In the South-West, kidnappers and sundry criminals have made life unbearable for the people.
Combating the spate of insecurity should start with tackling the unemployment scourge. The first point should be to review our school curriculum. We must teach entrepreneurship in schools. Graduates should be encouraged to pursue the business side of their courses of study after school. Students in technical colleges should be encouraged to practise what they learnt in school. Let government give serious ones among them grants to establish their own businesses. In this age of artificial intelligence, where robots are engaged to perform certain tasks, there may not be much need for workers in due course. The earlier we emphasise self-employment or entrepreneurship, the better for Nigeria.
The Igbo have an apprenticeship system called ‘igba boi’. This involves serving someone already established in a particular line of business for an agreed number of years ranging from five to seven years. At the end of the agreed term, the master settles his apprentice with a reasonable amount of money to start off his own. This system, which has helped a lot to fix our young ones in the South-East, appears to be under threat now. Many youths prefer the fast lane to wealth, which in most cases, involves dubious ways of making money. We must return to the apprenticeship system to help curb unemployment.
We must also return to agriculture. It has the potential to engage many of our youths. It can also help to curb the acute hunger ravaging Nigeria currently. The era of easy oil money is gone. Government, on its part, should encourage companies and individuals who are employers of labour by providing the necessary infrastructure and the enabling environment for businesses to thrive. It should grant tax waivers and woo foreign investors with favourable policies.
