Positioning Nigeria for innovation economy

Nigeria’s economy has huge opportunities but the required skills are lacking. The rapid changing economic landscape of the world’s economy is making borders irrelevant.  Marketable skills are becoming the language of a successful company and a great economy. A recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report warned of major changes to the workplace. It contends that the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” driven by technological and socio-economic changes will transform labour markets in the next five years.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will usher in “An Innovative Economy” characterised by wide scale disruption across various industries which will influence the labour market. The use of technology and automation are displacing jobs in traditional industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, education, and retail. The most demanded jobs in Nigeria today did not exist five years ago, the pace of this change will only increase. The proliferation of technology and digitisation will not only increase productivity but will also redistribute employment.

The use of digital technology among Nigerian consumers and businesses in their day to day activities is creating significant datasets. The ability to analyse the data and use it to business advantage speaks to the strength of building an innovative economy. The recent 2015’s election saw technology as a strong platform for political candidates to connect with the electorate, this is the anthem of innovative economies, and it is about using data to create opportunities, in business, politics, civic responsibility, civic engagement and policy formulation. Innovative economies use datasets as benchmark for stimulating demand, data analysis is a central part of our socio-economic activities.

The convergence of online and offline technologies and the presence of new fields such as robotics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, machine learning are creating jobs that did not exist previously. This era is bringing in new opportunities that demand new skill set, the answer to this demand is training old personnel whether in government or business because change brings opportunities.

The dynamism of change brings huge potentials and opportunities for any organisation that hopes to succeed in 21st century economy. Nigeria’s government must create a template that allows Nigeria’s economic climate to exploit the change the new industrial revolution has ushered in. LinkedIn, an online skill social media platform with 414 million members globally created a platform called Economic Graph which allowed members to share professional information such as education, skills and job experience, this platform brought an insight into present demand and supply of skill set in the 21st century.

The Buhari led government can take advantage of this platform by knowing how to formulate the required policy for the economy. The skill gap the new revolution ushered in can only be filled if the government could give great preference to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) education. The world’s largest economies are using STEM education to position their economies for the opportunities the new revolution has created.

To exploit this change, the government has to give high priority to education and technology in the next budget, the next three budgets of Buhari’s administration must allocate 15 per cent yearly to education and technology and also there must be organised training centres that help augment the skill set needed to drive an innovative and knowledge-based economy. When this is done, the investment will bring in the right skill set to the economy and there will be strong skill transfer. This investment will increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation’s economy, and will add revenue to government through taxation. The reality of where we find ourselves as a nation is that the new industrial revolution has created a new event in human history, the creation of machine intelligence or robotics, and the connection of all humans via a common digital network, thus transforming the global economy.

Nigeria should take advantage of this change by investing in STEM education, our greatest asset is still our young people, and we have to take advantage of their hunger for success. Government, businesses, and education sector must address the skill gap for Nigeria to take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution and innovation economy.

The private sector is far ahead when it comes to data gathering and analytics, but the government has a lot of work to do. What we need as a matter of urgency is to reshape education using STEM, and the training of personnel both in government and businesses using skill transfer. We can create a platform called “Nigeria Skill Diaspora” there are lots of Nigerians doing great stuff in the developed economies. The government can use fiscal policy incentives by giving tax breaks to businesses that can attract Nigerians working for any company in Fortune 500.

The greatest leverage we have is attracting the best talents in the Diaspora. We have to give huge priority to brain gain to close the skill gap in the innovation economy.  Nigeria will get out stronger from this economic crisis. We have the potentials; we just need to see the cup as half full. “The labour of our heroes’ past shall never be in vain.” God bless Nigeria.

Oluwagbenga Oyebanji