[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” parallax=”content-moving” awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.6)” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”0.5″ awb_image=”289840″][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1540132739768{background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.01) !important;*background-color: rgb(255,255,255) !important;}”][vc_empty_space height=”400px”][vc_cta h2=”Rising population, dwindling jobs puts Nigeria on brink of socio-economic crisis” h2_font_container=”font_size:50″ h4=”Written by Lolade Akinmurele” txt_align=”center” color=”white” use_custom_fonts_h2=”true” css=”.vc_custom_1540152887099{background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.01) !important;*background-color: rgb(255,255,255) !important;}”][/vc_cta][vc_empty_space height=”300px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” parallax=”content-moving” awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.7)” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”-0.5″ awb_parallax_mobile=”1″ awb_image=”289838″][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1540132739768{background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.01) !important;*background-color: rgb(255,255,255) !important;}”][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”891″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle_2″][vc_column_text css_animation=”bottom-to-top”]Banwo Olusa jumped out of bed as soon as her alarm went off by 6 am. She needed to make a two-hour trip from her house in Ajah for a job interview somewhere in the heart of Nigeria’s commercial city, Ikeja.
Banwo had endured over five years of fruitless job hunting, so was excited when she received a text message reading she was shortlisted for an interview. The sender was a person named Patrick, who claimed to be the human resources manager at a company called MAG Consult.
She never applied for the job, but the thought that landing a job would help her cater for her old, ailing mother and two younger siblings, meant she was not patient enough to query the validity of the message. Not even a Google search came to her mind to get some details about the company.
The 28-year-old had never worked a single day since graduating from the University of Lagos in 2012, so one could understand her desperation.
The family sacrificed part of the little money they had, that Banwo may transport herself to the venue of the interview. The family reckoned it was a sacrifice that had to be made to secure a job for Banwo. If she got the job, perhaps they wouldn’t have to rely so much on the charity of friends to get by.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” awb_type=”color” awb_color=”#000000″][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_custom_heading text=”“We were asked to pay N4,500 to fill a form that qualifies us for the next stage for a job as a customer call centre personnel, where we would earn N100,000,” said 25-year old Uche Amadi” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff”][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” parallax=”content-moving” awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.7)” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”0.5″ awb_parallax_mobile=”1″ awb_image=”289858″][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1540132739768{background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.01) !important;*background-color: rgb(255,255,255) !important;}”][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”200px”][vc_custom_heading text=”Samples of other fraudulent messages for job interviews” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:left|color:%23ffffff”][vc_images_carousel images=”289859,289860″ img_size=”large” mode=”vertical” autoplay=”yes” hide_prev_next_buttons=”yes” wrap=”yes”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text css_animation=”bottom-to-top”]
She arrived at the Ikeja venue at 8:30 am, 30 minutes before the scheduled time for the interview. She counted close to a hundred people in the room where an hour-long test was administered.
At the end of the test, a gentleman in a dark-grey suit walked forward and started talking about how he makes a windfall from time to time as a network marketer.
The man would explain how he marketed healthcare products for the next 45 minutes and concluded by asking people to register for a set of products that will cost N15,000. He guaranteed they would make so much money (from selling the products), and never have to look for jobs anymore.
The irony of the situation was, these people were there to get employed, but there was a representative of the supposed prospective employer, advising them otherwise.
Banwo counted 8 people who were willing to pay the N15,000 on the spot. The man, who claimed to be sad many people could not partake, soon reduced the initial money to be paid on the spot to N5,000 if the people promised to make payment later. Banwo only had slightly over N2,000 left from the money her mother gave her. She felt she was letting an opportunity pass, so she dashed out to call her mother to send an extra N3000.
With this request, the family would have to depend on neighbors that day to eat dinner as it was all the family had left. She got a bank alert a few minutes after she spoke to her mother and paid the N5000 immediately.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” awb_type=”color” awb_color=”#000000″][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_custom_heading text=”Banwo is one of over 40 million Nigerians aged 15-34 in the labor force, that have become easy targets for deceitful and fraudulent companies that claim to have well-paying jobs for them.” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff”][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” parallax=”content-moving” awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.5)” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”-0.5″ awb_parallax_mobile=”1″ awb_image=”289861″][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1540132739768{background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.01) !important;*background-color: rgb(255,255,255) !important;}”][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text css_animation=”left-to-right”]She got some products after making an additional payment of N10,000 a week later which her mother raised from selling an old shoe and three bags. It’s been two months now, and Banwo hasn’t convinced a single person to sign up since then, neither has she sold any of the products. An old friend of her mother’s who had shown signs of buying stopped answering calls to confirm her interest.
She had gambled with her family’s constrained resources to devastating effect and she blames herself. Still, without a job, Banwo has learned to scrutinize text messages inviting her for any job interview since then.
Banwo is one of over 40 million Nigerians aged 15-34 in the labor force, that have become easy targets for deceitful and fraudulent companies that claim to have well-paying jobs for them.
Some of the companies that circulate the text messages offering a job even request that people pay a token of around N5,000 to share their resumes with potential employers but most times nothing ever happens, victims say.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_custom_heading text=”Job vacancies advertised on electrical poles in street corners” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff”][vc_images_carousel images=”289890,289891,289892″ img_size=”medium” slides_per_view=”3″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”300px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” awb_type=”color” awb_color=”#000000″][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_custom_heading text=”Some 520,000 people had registered even though vacancies existed for only 4,556 according to the Immigration service data. That implies that for each available job, 114 people submitted applications.” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:50|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff”][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”0.5″ awb_image=”289866″][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”1032px”][vc_custom_heading text=”THE STORY SO FAR” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:50|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.7)” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”-0.5″ awb_image=”289875″][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_column_text]BusinessDay analysis shows that listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), employ fewer people in 2018 than they did six years ago in 2012. Data compiled by BusinessDay from the Bloomberg terminal shows that listed firms employed 154,403 people as at the end of September 2018, the lowest since 2012 when they employed 165,474 people.
An analysis of the number of people employed by listed firms from 2009 to 2018 shows that in 2009, firms employed 180,588 people, but that number shrank 16 percent and 3.7 percent to 151,062 and 145,497 in 2010 and 2011 respectively. After that, there was a 13.7 percent increase to 165,474 in 2012, later followed by a marginal decline to 163,739 in 2013.
In 2014, firms employed the most people in the 2009-2018 period under review, after an 11 percent jump to 181,978.
The momentum faded in 2015, with a four percent decline to 174,650. Job growth was flat in 2016, which was the year Nigeria slipped into its first recession in 25 years after global oil prices and production in Africa’s largest oil producer tumbled to record lows.
“This tells us Nigerian companies invest in employees when the oil price is high,” said Charles Robertson, a global chief economist at an investment bank, Renaissance Capital.
“It also tells us that well-paid jobs have been harder to find for young Nigerians,” Robertson said in an emailed response to BusinessDay.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” awb_type=”color” awb_color=”#000000″][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_custom_heading text=”“Nigerian companies invest in employees when the oil price is high,” said Charles Robertson, global chief economist at investment bank, Renaissance Capital.” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff”][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.7)” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”-0.5″ awb_image=”289876″][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1540143637970{background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_column_text]That year, listed firms employed 175,975 people, a 0.75 percent growth over the previous year, as corporate boardrooms shed staff to reduce costs and cushion the blow dealt on profits by the economic slowdown.
In 2017, a fragile exit from recession failed to show up in job creation given that unemployment is a lagging indicator. That year, companies shed 7.54 percent of staff to 162,704. By the end of September 2018, those jobs had declined further, this time by 5 percent to 154,403, the lowest in 7 years.
From 2009 to 2018, publicly listed companies in Nigeria cut jobs by 14 percent even as the country’s population grew by 28.5 percent, a trend that reflects the health of the economy and scarcity of well-paying jobs in Nigeria. The country even recorded a rather negative stride, when it recently out-striped India as the country with the highest number of extremely poor people, according to the World Poverty Clock.
Latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) puts Nigeria’s unemployment rate at a six-year high of 18.8 percent as at the third quarter of 2017, while underemployment rate reached the highest on record at 21.2 percent.
With unemployment and underemployment on the rise, Nigeria faces tremendous challenges in terms of sustainable job creation and productivity.
The World Bank projects Nigeria’s population to rise to 410 million by 2050. With this population, the country will rank as the third most populated country in the world.
Nigeria’s labor force grows at an average of 2.6 million yearly according to the third quarter 2016 job creation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This means the economy must generate the same amount to keep the unemployment rate at 2016 levels.
The agency is yet to release a new jobs creation report since 2016, however, the unemployment report released a year later shows the unemployment rate has been rising, an indication that the economy has not been able to create enough jobs over the period.
A grim reminder of thinning jobs in the country was when a nationwide recruitment exercise for the Nigerian Immigration Service. It claimed the lives of a dozen job seekers during a stampede that occurred when a mammoth crowd of job seekers turned out en masse for the exercise.
Some 520,000 people had registered even though vacancies existed for only 4,556 according to the Immigration service data. That implies that for each available job, 114 people submitted applications. [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” awb_type=”color” awb_color=”#000000″][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_custom_heading text=”In an ambitious economic plan unveiled in 2017, the Federal government said it will create 15 million jobs in four years, an average of 3.75 million yearly. The plan targets unemployment rate of 14.5 percent in 2018, 12.9 percent in 2019 and 11.23 percent by 2020″ font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff”][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row awb_type=”image” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_image_background_position=”50% 50%” awb_parallax=”scroll” awb_parallax_speed=”0.5″ awb_image=”289878″][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”1032px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” parallax=”content-moving” awb_type=”color” awb_stretch=”1″ awb_color=”#000000″][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1540132739768{background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.01) !important;*background-color: rgb(255,255,255) !important;}”][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text css_animation=”left-to-right”]Analysts say the shortfall is a signal that government jobs are short of what is required and the private sector has a big role to play in creating sufficient jobs.
“It is the private sector that should be creating jobs, but the question that should be asked is if enough is being done to allow for a business climate where the private sector can contribute more to growth and employment,” said Razia Khan, the chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank.
“One of the key features of economies susceptible to the resource curse is a bloated, inefficient public sector and that is why right-sizing is positive,” Khan said in a tweeted response to BusinessDay.
Reducing an over-bloated civil service is hardly a new counsel in Nigeria. However, the government has been reluctant to do that, as it is politically unpopular.
It is not the only instance where the fear of implementing an unpopular policy has been detrimental to the public good. There is also the petrol subsidy that gulps about $USD3 billion dollars yearly, almost a trillion naira, over a third of the N2.7 trillion the Federal government earned in the whole of 2017 according to official data. The country’s oil resources are not enough to warrant a subsidy this size, but the country has managed to stick to the practice, claiming it is for the benefit of the poor, the same people who cannot afford to ride in their own cars or generate their power independently through fuel-powered generators.
In an ambitious economic plan unveiled in 2017, the Federal government said it will create 15 million jobs in four years, an average of 3.75 million yearly. The plan targets an unemployment rate of 14.5 percent in 2018, 12.9 percent in 2019 and 11.23 percent by 2020.
Creating 3.75 million jobs annually would mean a 134 percent rise over the 1.6 million jobs created in the whole of 2015, according to the latest full-year jobs creation data from the NBS.
“When the job creation reports for full-year 2016 and 2017 are published, it would show that fewer jobs were created in those years, a reflection of the economic realities which have been well captured by the trend with jobs in publicly-listed firms,” said Nonso Obikili, an economist.
“That then leaves the government with an even higher mountain to climb in terms of reducing the rising unemployment rate in the country,” Obikili added.
A global consulting firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) says Nigeria can reduce unemployment through services-led growth, according to a May 2018 report by the firm titled “Structural transformation and jobless growth in Nigeria.”
The services sector accounted for over 57 percent of the country’s GDP in 2017 and accounts for the highest number of jobs.
The services sector has been instrumental in helping highly populated countries, specifically India, in creating jobs for their teeming population.
“Overall, there is a need for structural reforms to lay the foundation for long-term sustainable growth in the broader economy and the services sector,” said Andrew Nevin, the chief economist at PWC.
“Such reforms include business environment reforms, which are necessary to improve the ease of doing business, sustain macroeconomic stability, and attract investments.”
“In specific terms, improving human capital development, providing enabling infrastructure and intellectual property rights are necessary to drive growth and productivity in the services sector,” Nevin added.
Banwo hopes the government would someday take the advice that comes its way to create jobs. “I’m at the tipping point,” she said, holding her head in her hands before she sits up to take an incoming call from her mother. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”400px”][vc_single_image image=”289885″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”289883″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”289882″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”100px”][/vc_column][/vc_row]