It’s an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria is one of the most populous country in the world with about 190 million people according to the United Nations. This makes the country rank 6th in terms of population; aside this, the country is blessed with several natural resources that include petroleum and natural gas. But continued periods of bad governance have marred the turn of these resources into the betterment of her citizenry. With the World Bank estimation that over 50 percent of the total world’s youthful population will be from Africa by 2020, it’s imperative for a country that has the highest number of Africans to key in to the impending demands that the future of work will require.
The 2019 World Bank report pointed out that the changing nature of work; from the influence of technology in creating global platform-based businesses which are fast rising within a short time, to advancement in the skills required to work. The fear of robots displacing people off their work and the increasing informal jobs globally. Despite all these, the world bank proposed measures for governments to act. First and most important is the human capital development, especially early childhood education and health. Also, strengthening social protection in terms of social insurance and reforms in labour market rules. Finally, creating fiscal space for public financing of human development and social protection.
In Nigeria, building of human capital has not been taking with a great deal of concern by those in governance as the nation currently spends meagre amount on education and health, the two indicators for human capital development. According to the 2019 world bank report, “Human capital comprises the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives, enabling them to realize their potential as productive members of society. It has large payoffs for individuals, societies, and countries”. The statement conforms with the many instances in the report where investments in human capital have had positive returns for example, in the United States, replacing a low-quality teacher in an elementary school classroom with an average-quality teacher raises the combined income of that classroom’s students by US$250,000. Also, a study in Kenya showed that deworming in childhood reduced school absences while raising wages in adulthood by as much as 20 percent and to bring it into the Nigerian fold, a program providing malaria testing and treatment increased worker’s earnings by 10 percent in just a few weeks.
In other for Nigeria to take advantage of her massive population and be a force to reckon with in the fourth industrial revolution- Digital technologies and Cyber physical systems, education and health must be of high priority. At present, the education system of the country is at a low ebb with about 10.5 million out-of-school children despite primary education officially free and compulsory, and also the free meal programme for primary school pupils that was launched some years back by the present government. Governments must invest in awareness programmes on the importance of education, especially in the northern part of the country, which has the highest number of out-of-school children. The infrastructures in schools (primary, secondary and tertiary) must be upgraded to the present technological needs, while curricular must be revamped in line with the present realities. Furthermore, the renumeration for teachers must be reviewed for proper optimization; the ongoing debate of the minimum wage must be sorted out. In addition, adequate funding must be made available to tertiary institutions who are the propellers of innovation, this will help them come up with inventions that would improve the economy. On the long run, the Nigerian government would benefit from these commitments as it was witnessed in the mid-1970s, according to the 2019 world bank report, “Nigeria introduced universal primary education, sending a large cohort of children through primary school who otherwise would not have gone. Years later, the members of that cohort were found to be more engaged in political life. They paid closer attention to the news, spoke to their peers about politics, attended community meetings, and voted more often than those who did not go to primary school”. If these were the achievements decades ago, one wonders the successes that would be recorded in this highly demanding world.
The health sector of the nation is also in shambles, despite having the best doctors across the world; the country has struggled to hold off these men and women in the white coat from leaving the country because of poor medical facilities that has left many in search of greener pasture. This was well documented in a 2018 interview by PREMIUM TIMES with the former president of Nigerian Medical Association, Mike Ogirima who asserted that “about 10,000 to 15,000 Nigerian doctors are working outside the country and 90 percent of them were trained in Nigeria”. The present situation would make it impossible for human capital development since health is one of its two indicators. One way out of this quagmire is an improvement in health facilities and special intervention in the primary health care system, which is the backbone of maternal health; pregnant women and nursing mothers must be able to access these facilities within a distance and at a moderate amount. This will help in the early childhood development; as the 2018 World Bank report stated, “the fastest synaptic growth occurs between the prenatal period and age 3, with growth then gradually slowing”. Therefore, a child develops cognitive and socio-emotional skills such as empathy at this age, which are needed in the future of work. Also, the country can adopt cash programs for nursing mothers to educate and provide them with healthy food just as the Shombhob program in Bangladesh.
In conclusion, if Nigeria wants to move itself out of 152 ranking with Human Capital Index of 0.34 in the 2019 World Bank report and become a global force in the future of work, investing in human capital development should be its primary focus while leveraging on strengthening social protection and reforms in labour market rules.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://www.tell.com.ng/oguntade-sodiq/how-nigeria-can-leverage-on-her-population-and-be-a-global-giant-in-the-changing-nature-of-work/
Congratulations @ojuolape! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!