Nathan Sogo: Why Are We So Poor?
There can be no argument about the topic which implies that the Nigerian economy is not working for majority of Nigerians. The economy is not working for the poor, students, and people residing in the rural communities, the physically challenged, and the old ones also worse for the unemployed, In Nigeria, there is the issue of youth and employment. 70 per cent of the 80 million youths in Nigeria are either unemployed or underemployed by the statistics given by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Although the recent World Bank report that Nigeria’s poverty level has dropped by 2.1 per cent, this doesn’t change the fact that most Nigerians are poor. Little wonder we pray for peace and security without any answers, in a nation in which there are one hundred million people living in poverty? It is highly unlikely. It is impossible for Nigeria to enjoy sustainable peace or law and order until we address the unbalanced economic growth that creates billionaires in few and poverty and unemployment in hundreds of millions.
Why is this so?
There are major issues arising from our economy i.e. the control of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by only
three sectors of the economy:
petroleum and natural gas, agriculture, trade; the government’s
expenditure on repeated expenses of politics and public service which
doesn’t provide employment for a large percentage of Nigerians; the
influence of our oil and gas sector by less productive public sector;
the structure of our financial sector which does not include the
emerging Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises in financing through loan
facilities, provision of mortgages and housing for citizens.There are major issues arising from our economy i.e. the control of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by only
The results of the dependency of the
economy on these sectors has limited the exploration of other sectors
which has increased poverty and unemployment. Potential sectors such as
manufacturing, solid minerals, fashion, building and construction, real
estate etc. are either very small in size or have very low growth rates.
Sectors like telecommunications which are fast growing do not employ in
large numbers.
The shortfall in electricity supply is
one of the reasons why we haven’t been able to create sustainable
industrialization especially in areas such as manufacturing, mining,
modernized agriculture, agro-processing and agro-allied industry, and
construction. Nigeria presently generates 4,502 megawatts of electricity
and we are hoping to reach 7,000 megawatts of electricity by the end of
the year (amen) compared to our African counterparts, Egypt’s 24,000MW
and South Africa’s 40,000MW which is our vision 2020 dream! Other
factors such as poor transport infrastructure, poor security, water,
postal, immigration, etc. all of which in addition to the cost of
alternative power generation raise the cost of operations for our
businesses and becomes discouraging.
Our education system places insufficient
emphasis on quality, skills and competences i.e the educational system
does not promote economics, management and entrepreneurship education
which destroys innovation and creativity that is supposed to foster
student’s own independent learning and creative thinking. In Northern
Nigeria, the willful exclusion of millions of young people from modern
education and skills is a guarantee of large scale poverty and is now a
threat to national security.
What can be done to ameliorate this situation?
We must diversify our economy away from rents from oil, into a productive economy based on manufacturing, transportation, mining, agriculture and construction, amongst others, a proper structure of the financial sector to render it capable and willing to lend to SMEs. A drastic reduction in the cost of governance in running of the governance. Also industrialization is achievable by improved electricity supply, transport infrastructure, low interest rate and inflation, better public services including security, water, postal, ports, immigration and customs and constant tax review. Adequate monitoring of the power sector following the completion of National Integrated Power Project NIPP privatization to maximum effectiveness. Government must also consider the provision of unemployment support for the unemployed populace.
We must diversify our economy away from rents from oil, into a productive economy based on manufacturing, transportation, mining, agriculture and construction, amongst others, a proper structure of the financial sector to render it capable and willing to lend to SMEs. A drastic reduction in the cost of governance in running of the governance. Also industrialization is achievable by improved electricity supply, transport infrastructure, low interest rate and inflation, better public services including security, water, postal, ports, immigration and customs and constant tax review. Adequate monitoring of the power sector following the completion of National Integrated Power Project NIPP privatization to maximum effectiveness. Government must also consider the provision of unemployment support for the unemployed populace.
Finally we must embrace a stronger
enforcement theory of abolition of corruption rather than a lip service
approach and our leaders and aspiring leaders must be prepared to fight
corruption at every level of governance.
Photo Credit: Dreamstime| Djembe