Unleashing massive job creation programmes in a sustainable way (2)  

 

 

Skill acquisition programmes alone will not address the massive unemployment challenge that is currently facing the nation. It has been shown globally that traditional market structures do not work for the poor. In one of my several works on using skill acquisition programs to address massive unemployment challenges, the fashion programme did a great work, graduating best in class tailors and fashion designers. The NGO went further to provide free sewing machines to some of the best graduating students. In six months’ time we tried to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. Although largely all the participants were grateful for participating in such a rich programme over 80% were unable to provide a livelihood from their newly acquired skill.

 

What was the missing link? Although participants from these initiatives could design and make dresses, they were unable to commercialize this new skill. Having a skill and putting that skill to profitable use are two different things. It is this interface of identifying vulnerable persons in society (NGOs), providing support for these persons (governments, Interventionist agencies) and commercializing the effort (Private Enterprises) that will address in a sustainable way the issue of youth and graduate unemployment in Nigeria.

 

Unemployed graduates, youths and the poor are not integrated into the workings of markets. They lack the requisite talent to convert learned skills to money and do not understand how markets work. They must be helped. In Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen describes “participation in economic interchange as a basic part of social living…… but the poor lacks these freedoms”. NGOs need to do more to help graduates of skill acquisition programmes, not only to produce goods but to bring these goods to market in a profitable way. A number of examples abound on mechanisms for making this to work. In the Garissa District of Eastern Kenya, in a largely impoverished area where most of the population relies on livestock farming for their livelihoods, CARE Kenya has initiated and is implementing market programmes that are helping livestock farmers to increase their farm yields and bring their products to market. This model can be adapted in a number of ways. I will not be advocating here any system that makes job creation endeavours as social endeavours in perpetuity as I do not believe this to be sustainable. To be sustainable, any government job creation endeavour must be capable of transiting to a commercially profit making private enterprise within five years.

 

To sustainably address the issue of job creation, the government must identify segments of the industry that rely heavily on imported items and with potential for huge employment. Take as an example the issue of clothing. This industry is a highly labour dependent industry worth over six hundred billion dollars and dominated by heavy imports from China. With appropriate private public partnership Nigeria can become a net exporter of apparel within ten years. Aliko Dangote has demonstrated in less than a decade that cement importation can be a thing of the past. We can replicate this feat in a number of industries. After identifying fashion and apparel as one of the industries to tackle, as an example, the government can thereafter appoint a private sector champion to lead the massive development of clothing and apparel hubs all across the country with the government providing necessary policy frame work for these infant apparel hubs to thrive.

 

I will tell you what a typical intervention will look like per state. 1) Appoint a private sector champion as CEO. 2) This CEO will take a blue print prepared by the government. 3) In this blue print, 2000 low skilled tailors (largely women) will be trained in an economic hub created for such a purpose by the Government/Interventionist agency per state. 4) The blue print has in it, the training and engagement of another 1000 graduates in sales, marketing, distribution, logistics, quality control and administration of this hub. 5) A portion of the N5,000 that government plans to pay persons who are unemployed is channelled to paying trainees while on training 6)The CEO has a mandate to nurture and grow this social enterprise to a fully commercial operation within 3-5years. The financials must show on a sliding scale how the government plans to exit the funding of the enterprise. By the end of 3-5 years, the enterprise will be sold by public auction and privatized. My rough estimates show that to create 5,000 jobs per state in this manner will cost averagely N10billion, and at exit, the government will get about N3billion from the sale of the enterprise.

 

You can imagine what 5,000 private sector created jobs per state can do to an economy? Think about all the multiplier effect? Think about the new skills that are injected into the economy. Think about the capacity of the economy to grow. Think about the momentum this will create. Think about the significant drop in crime rate. Think about the new sources of taxes and non-oil revenue that this result. Think about the fact that these endeavours will not increase the fixed overheads in the civil service. With these complimenting other activities of government and other sections of the economy, it is not difficult to see how in ten years’ time, Nigeria will be amongst the world leading industrialized nations. This will certainly make dependence on oil revenue a thing of the past.

(Concluded)

Tunde Ekpekurede