The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has urged public and private sector stakeholders to prioritise human capital development as a critical step in addressing the challenges of brain drain and unemployment in Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the group decried the increasing emigration of skilled professionals from Nigeria, noting that it deprives the country of valuable human capital assets.
It also highlighted the high rate of youth unemployment as a major hindrance to the utilisation of human capital, thus ultimately contributing to economic underperformance.
Amina Maina, chairperson, central organising committee for the upcoming 29th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit, said this year’s summit would galvanise bold ideas from the public and private sectors to keep the youth productive and minimise the brain drain affecting the economy.
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She said: “Wherever you go around the world, you hear that the best people – whether in education, healthcare, the financial industry, or even in infrastructure, are Nigerians. We must find a way to keep and retain our best brains in-country.
“We hope that at NES 29, the private sector community will be able to give us bold ideas, which will be a way of turning things around. From the public sector side, we hope to find a synergy that brings the public and private sectors together to help us reduce our unemployment rate, and ensure our youths are gainfully employed and have something to look forward to.
“We desire to use the human capital we are blessed with to put Nigeria back on the trajectory where it should be. We should be able to take our place amongst the comity of nations because we do have the best and brightest, and with the right system, we can retain them back home.”
The NESG had earlier announced that the 29th edition of its summit will be anchored on ‘Pathways for Sustainable Economic Transformation and Inclusion’, in light of the urgency of translating economic growth into improved and sustainable living standards for all citizens.
This year’s summit theme hints at Nigeria’s potential for sustainable development, leveraging innovative policies, robust institutions, strategic infrastructural investments, and human capital development.
