Recently, President Jonathan appointed a committee to recommend how to create 1 million jobs in Nigeria.
Recently, President Jonathan appointed a committee to recommend how to create 1 million jobs in Nigeria.
After looking at all the appointees, I recognized a few of them, most notably, Mr. Aliko Dangote and Mr. Earnest Ndukwe. These two Nigerians have proven themselves as job creators. Mr. Dangote has created thousands of jobs in various industries, including cement manufacturing, commodity sales and even oil and gas. We need 1000 Dangotes in our mist. Mr. Earnest Ndukwe led the revolutionary growth of our telecom industry from barely 500,000 subscribers ten years ago to over 70 million today and growing.
Even though I may not be familiar with the rest of the panel, I am sure the President is aware of their accomplishments in their various fields of endeavor. Most Nigerians dream of a stable and prosperous country. Therefore, we should all join together to support the President and all the members of the committee.
Job creation is affected by the following, political stability, rule of law, government incentives, private enterprise, manufacturing base, infrastructure, land reform, capital, labor, and above all, POWER. “No electricity no jobs.”
As an entrepreneur, I have been directly or indirectly responsible for creating over 1,000 jobs in the U.S. in various fields ranging from mortgage banking, to insurance, Real Estate development, and even Internet and computer technology.
After 25 years of being in business and creating jobs in America, I came to the conclusion that Nigeria needs me. This is what inspires my desire to build 4,000 megawatts of power within the next two years in Nigeria. Over the last 10 years every time I think of doing something in Nigeria, the first thought that came to my mind was, "But there is no electricity in Nigeria.” We can never hope to create any meaningful jobs without adequate electricity.
In my article on "creating capital for Nigeria, " I made a suggestion on how Nigeria can create close to one million jobs within the next six months by turning the dead assets most Nigerian home owners are sitting on into immediate capital which can quickly trickle down to create thousands of skilled and unskilled jobs like, carpenters, painters, plumbers, roofers, bricklayers, carpet installers and I recommended that the government should immediately create or revamp their mortgage industry and create a secondary market to trade mortgage securities. Most Nigerian homes are free and clear of any mortgages. This means the homes are assets that can be converted to cash or capital. If the government can help most Nigerian home owners to access the capital locked in their homes, the Nigeria government can create several trillion Naira in capital instantly. This new capital can filter through the economy and be recycled several times while creating between 500,000 to over 1 million jobs.
The government can give or guaranty a loan for each home owner to fix his home, as long as the home owner agrees to pay the loan back over the next 10-15 years in small affordable payments. This new money created will give the home owners the ability to create thousands jobs for Nigerians who can do the repair work, paint the houses, resulting in the purchase of millions of gallons of paint, cement, carpet and appliances. This loan guaranty scheme can also begin the process of creating credit within our informal economy and teaching Nigerians how to obtain and maintain credit. According to a report in 234next.com, Ismail Ridwan, a senior economist with the World Bank, said, “the amount of credit needed to take Nigeria into the top 20 economies by the year 2020 would have to be generated internally.” With only 3% of Nigerians having access to the banking system, any job creation will have to take into account how to include the informal economy that is almost 60-70% of Nigeria’s economy.
The U.S. needs 25 million barrels of oil daily, and pumps about 8 million of those barrels domestically. The U.S. oil and gas industry provides employment directly or indirectly to 9.6 million Americans. By proportion, since Nigeria pumps 2.8 million barrels of oil daily, we should have 2.8 million Nigerians employed in our oil and gas industry. The question is how many Nigerians are employed in our oil and gas industry, and how can we increase the number?
Sometime ago, President Jonathan spoke about the deforestation of Nigeria's forests. Our solution to this problem can help develop our gas industry and create thousands of jobs in the process. Nigeria currently exports most of the gas we generate, and the rest that are not exported is burned off. Nigeria burns $2 billion worth of gas yearly. That is enough to build 2,000 mega watts of power that can light up two million homes. Multiply that by ten or twenty years, and we have lost an opportunity to build 40,000 megawatts of power and create employment for millions of Nigerians. Therefore, to reduce deforestation and create employment, we need to create a gas industry that is completely private. If 50-60 % of Nigerians cook their food with LPG or propane we can spurn an industry that changes our oil and gas economy from being an extractive industry into an industry that is domesticated and generating employment and commerce for our people. Imagine how many Nigerians will be employed in pumping, processing, filling and distributing 20-50 million cooking gas cylinders per month. So rather than just extract our oil and gas assets, we should take them through our own domestic commercial process. That is how you create jobs.
Nigeria's teledensity has grown from less that 10% to over 50%. Today, over 70 million Nigerians have at least one phone, most have two, yet there is not a single phone manufacturer in Nigeria that makes the handsets used by Nigerians. There are no battery manufacturers that make batteries for those phones, and there are no Nigerian manufacturers that make cords for the hand sets. No Nigerian software industry is involved in writing software for the phones, and I don't even think any of the handsets are assembled in Nigeria. That is 2 million jobs we could have created by insisting that any company that wants to sell their handsets to Nigerians must open a manufacturing and an assembly plant in Nigeria.
The Lagos state government of Babatunde Fashola recently stated that they have established a poultry farm in Ikorodu that will produce 20,000 tons of poultry per years and provide jobs for 400 people. While this is commendable, what is needed to be pointed out to our leaders is that the business of government is not business. The business of government is to empower its own people, by providing the right environment and infrastructure necessary for entrepreneurs to thrive. For example, what if the Lagos state government had empowered, facilitated the training and guaranteed the capital necessary for 400 citizens to each create a poultry farm that can produce 20,000 tons of poultry and employ 400 citizens each? Then Lagos state would have created 160,000 jobs in the poultry industry that can produce 8 million tons of poultry per year.
I have touched on a few real life examples that the presidential committee can take note of while they deliberate, and as suggested earlier in this article, they should also set up a process whereby other Nigerians with ideas and suggestions can send them to the committee. As a Nigerian, I stand ready to provide any assistance my country needs and I am sure every Nigerian feels the same way.
Toyin Dawodu is the Managing partner of Capital Investment Group, a California based Diversified Investment Company focused on Infrastructure development in Africa. Email: [email protected]
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