The
Nigerian government has assured jobless Nigerians that it will create
10 million jobs within the next three years. Sixty per cent of Nigeria’s
140 million are youths. Many of them just idle away with nothing to do.
Raising the hope of hapless jobseekers in a time like this is
important. However, the reality on the ground suggests that creating the
quoted number of jobs within a short time is a tall dream.
It
is a misnomer for government to think that it can create jobs for
millions of people. Often government policies stifle job creation.
Across the world, governments do not create jobs but only provide
conditions under which millions of jobs can be created.
Over
the years, officials have continued to put square pegs in round holes.
Some time back, programmes and agencies were created to train job
seekers for some vocations.
Creating 10 million jobs is more than sitting in Abuja
making wishful statements. It requires a wholesome revamping of
policies that undermine economic growth. Unemployment is an intractable
problem.
It
is anybody’s guess if the 10 million people who will be employed in the
next three years will join the already over-bloated civil service or
will be absorbed by the private sector. Neither the civil service nor
the private sector can absorb half of that figure within the next three
years.
Successive
governments have made feeble attempts to create jobs through the
establishment of job creation agencies with different acronyms. Many of
the initiatives never took off. Right now each state government is
trying to avoid political backlash over retrenchment of workers. Most of
them are careful not to lay off workers in fear of a political
backlash.
Nigerian firms are highly uncompetitive even within Africa. Why won’t they when in 2004 alone, incessant power outages cost Nigeria
15 per cent of the manufacturing output ? This figure is expected to
rise since power outage now is at all time low. In addition 85 per cent
of manufacturers, including those in informal business, provide
themselves power supply.
Annually
the cost of fuelling private power generators is N16.4 trillion. Out of
this amount, factories and commercial enterprises gulp N191.08 billion
and N1.57trillion respectively. This amount can either be used to expand
existing business or set up new ones. This in turn will help in
creating jobs.
Apart
from this, there are bottlenecks in accessing credit for medium and
micro-business enterprises which have the potential to create huge
number of jobs. The lending rates at present are far above the Central
Bank of Nigeria’s recommendation. While
commercial banks take 26 per cent interest on all loans aside from
collaterals, the new micro-finance banks established to cater for these
categories of businesses charge 10 per cent interest on a monthly basis.
Per year the interests will be 120 per cent on any amount borrowed.
Interestingly, the amount a depositor has in the micro-finance bank is
not part of the total amount borrowed.
It
is not surprising that the president of the National Association of
Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture said: "Nigeria’s
hope of becoming the world’s leading economy by 2020 cannot be achieved
with the current excessive lending rate which can only kill
industries."
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