JOBS NOWHERE BUT JOBS EVERYWHERE: ICT TO THE RESCUE OF UNEMPLOYED YOUTHS AND GRADUATES. LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE FACULTY OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN.
Indeed, it is always a special pleasure for me to visit this fine and honourable institution: our premier university with its long tradition of culture, history and technological advancement. I am especially pleased to be here again for several reasons. I personally hold Nigeria’s premier higher institution, the University of Ibadan in very high esteem.
Ever since I met the Vice Chancellor, he has been full of enthusiasm with unbelievable energy and drive to take this great institution to the next level by leveraging on ICT. This is the second reason I am here.
According to the National Universities Commission (NUC) report published in 2017 on national universities ranking, University of Ibadan tops the list of Nigeria’s 100 best universities. This is highly commendable and I urge you to sustain this momentum.
Let me thank the organisers of this event for inviting me and also share my thoughts on some key industry issues in the ICT landscape and focus on the theme as highlighted in the letter of invitation:JOBS NOWHERE BUT JOBS EVERYWHERE: ICT TO THE RESCUE OF UNEMPLOYED YOUTHS AND GRADUATES. This is very apt and timely given the rate of youth unemployment in the country.
This event is coming at a critical time in our economic history, when the Nigerian economy is coming out of a recession with a significant downturn in performance in various sectors. I decided to personally attend to show the commitment of my Ministry to listen to views from partners and academia on how best to further implement our plans to boost job and wealth creation by leveraging on ICT.
Nigeria’s population is said to have reached about 180 million people in 2017. The National Population Commission states that about half of the population is made up of youth, defined as individuals between 15 and 34 years of age. Unfortunately, as the youth population grows, so does the unemployment rate. In fact, unemployed youth and graduates numbered about 20 million in 2017. This is unacceptable.
Several factors may be blamed for the prevalence of youth and graduates’ unemployment in Nigeria. There is high population growth rate – at 3.5 percent per annum – which accompanies an already large national population of over 180 million people. In addition, deficient school curricula and institutional capacities and capabilities have contributed to the failure to provide students the appropriate skills to make them fit-for-purpose (employable) in the 21st century.
It is in this context that we should understand the national socio-political and economic framework of youth and graduates’ unemployment. Since coming to office, we have introduced new dynamics in the ICT value chain. We came up with a new ICT roadmap after series of consultations with stakeholders and academia in the industry.
It will be recalled that President Buhari’s state of the nation address in 2015, identified ICT as a critical pillar to leverage on job and wealth creation as well as on economy. It is for this reason that, amongst others we launched several initiatives and regulatory frameworks to help us achieve inclusive growth in the ICT sector and create jobs.
In line with diversifying the Nigerian economy and recognising the role of ICT in making it a reality, government established one form of ICT infrastructure or the other across the six geopolitical zones.
The plan to build a national ICT park and exhibition centre in Abuja as part of the preparations for the 4th Industrial Revolution is on course. Similarly, a plan to “build a $1 billion-dollar ICT company” to boost indigenous technology has been articulated.
By the grace of God, we should have established in Nigeria an ICT university which will be the first of its kind in Africa before the next quarter with the sole purpose of providing training environment and training facilities to provide the local and global ICT industry with competent and skilled manpower in various sub sectors of the ICT sector.
We already have the Digital Bridge Institute which is for short term training programmes, in six locations across the country and we will transform this Institute into the ICT University of Nigeria. This unique University would by God’s grace take off effectively in September 2017 and would be run as a public private partnership with the best business and entrepreneurship models.
I have engaged with several stakeholders at the international level, Facebook, Motorola, Ericson and am still talking to many more stakeholders. We are encouraging them to come and adopt the respective university campuses as their own.
I am happy to report that this project is receiving a global boost and endorsement. The committee set up has been working round the clock on the realization of this objective, and has indeed submitted its final report on Tuesday 18th July 2017. A Vice Chancellor and other senior officials would soon be appointed.
The ICT University will be a multi-campus institution of the present Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) located in Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Asaba and Yola.
It is estimated that about N1.5 trillion has been spent on students studying in foreign educational institutions. The ICT University will not only develop world-class local capacity but also reduce the strain on the Naira through the reduction of foreign currency sourced for the training of our citizens outside the country.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we all know there is an alarming rate of youth’s disengagement in fully exploring their exuberant potentials due to the rising wave of economic recession being globally experienced. This limitation creates an unfavourable atmosphere for vibrant youth to fully explore and exploit various gifts, skills, talents, abilities and passions.
There are three major cadres of labour that drive a nation’s economy. They are the skilled, the semi-skilled and the unskilled, and many belonging to any of these cadres are either faced with the problem of underemployment or unemployment.
Underemployment refers to the situation where an employed individual is underpaid, leading to job dissatisfaction because of inability to meet-up with a desired standard of living. On the other hand, unemployment refers to a situation where a willing and capable individual who opts to work cannot secure a job because the opportunities are not available.
Government is prepared to use ICT to foster youth empowerment and development by way of giving of grants, loans, sponsorships, and financial support among other innovative schemes to lucrative business ideas.
The Ministry is collaborating with Google and other development partners to retool and reskill our youth. Since the inception of the present administration, it has always shown the need to grow the economy by leveraging on ICT and bringing the fore capabilities of Nigerian youth.
The Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was in Nigeria where he expressed confidence in the potentials of the Nigerian applications market. His visit further showed that lack of seed funding has remained the major barrier facing start-ups in Nigeria. Young Nigerians are building mega businesses and attracting venture capitalists from around the world, thanks to the growth of ICT sector in the country. With over $70 million in investment fund available to its founders Tunde Kehinde and Raphael Afedor, Jumia is no doubt a classic example of how ICT is transforming the business landscape in Nigeria and the continent at large. The online mall and retail solutions provider was patterned along Amazon and ebay and has a market share of about 70 percent of the online retail market in the country, servicing about half a million customers in its two years of existence. Jumia is independently ranked as second only to Google for preferred online shopping in Nigeria and among the many success stories that have come out of the growth of ICT sector in Nigeria and the continent at large.
Available statistics have shown that internet penetration has been growing steadily in the last 10 years with prospects of even greater speed by 2020 with the full implementation of the Broadband component of the ICT Roadmap. The Ministry under my watch, is focused on reducing the country’s ballooning unemployment rate and the attendant restiveness. Some analysts have maintained that the growing number of young people in the continent remains a ticking bomb if there are no commensurate job spaces created to absorb the population.
According to a report released by the World Bank, ICT is transforming the world of work, creating new job opportunities and making labour markets more innovative, inclusive and global. Accordingly, ICT is influencing employment both as an industry that create jobs and as a tool that empowers workers to access new forms of works in new and more flexible ways.
It is on record that the Information and Communication Technology sector alone contributed N500 billion into the nation’s economy in 2014 and created about 2.5 million jobs in 10 years. The statistics also show that the sector attracted about $30 billion of foreign investment from 2003 to 2014.
Despite these impressive figures, the present government is committed than ever before and as a matter of urgency looking to ICT to succour as the continent races to close the unemployment gap. We have clear and fundamental initiative to encourage Smart Digital Nigeria. We are also preparing to develop a digital single market in order to generate SMART, sustainable and inclusive growth in the ICT value chain and the economy at large.
I was in Rwanda Kenya, where I saw things for myself and they are the examples of countries in the continent with very high prospect for ICT inspired growth, giving the countries track-record for yielding ground-breaking innovations.
The Rockefeller Foundation had convened several roundtable discussions in Nigeria with the micro-work projectand is yielding positive fruits. The Ministry of Communications is collaborating with the foundation and discussing the opportunities for creation of the country’s high potential but disadvantaged youth through Information Communications Technology (ICT) enabled work. We will not relent to help identify innovative ways to tackle youth unemployment as part of the foundation’s recently launched Digital Jobs Africa Initiative. While this was not the first time that industry players discussed the opportunities for job creation in the country’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector which is still nascent, supporting an estimated 70,000 jobs but has an expected growth of 40 percent. It’s certainly, part of steps towards unlocking the potentials in the industry.
The momentum is high to finally capitalise on the country’s comparative advantages, as the country is already home to a number of mission-driven BPOs who are providing jobs and skills development for disadvantaged but high potential Nigerian youth.
Nigerian Universities can therefore take a cue from what is happening in the Nigerian ICT ecosystem value chain and put their various faculties on the path of growth and prosperity by leveraging on ICTs.
Government would provide the much needed infrastructure and favourable policies that would create the enabling environment for young people to innovate unhindered in the various start-up and innovative centres across the country.
The digital revolution that has the power to transform societies is already underway. Success belongs to those who innovate and seize available opportunities. I want to assure you that I will go talking with development partners home and abroad on the importance of investing in ICT today to leap-frog the nation’s growth for today and the future.
ICT is opening new opportunities, graduates and youths must be equipped to help in creating the much-needed employment through ICT. Investing in ICT is not a luxury but necessity!
ICT is seen as an utility like the same way water and electricity are seen. We must ensure that commitment to ensuring the growth and development of ICT for jobs and wealth creation is not just about playing lip service but about giving ICT its rightful place in our governmental prioritisations. It’s not just about making commitments but giving ICT its rightful place.
If we must achieve the desired goal of placing Nigeria on the global ICT mark thereby using it as major tool for job creation, earmarking investment for ICT is not enough. More importantly, we have to decide that we are going to do it by developing and churning out fit-for-purpose youths from our institutions for the exceptional ICT market and opportunities at the global level.
Hewlett Packard Nigeria has partnered with a view to commencing the proposed Information Communications and Technology (ICT) University in Nigeria. HP Nigeria has assured that she was prepared to adopt one of the campuses, focused on a specialised area and develop it to a smart Campus for business growth.
My vision to open the ICT University was predicated upon my consultations and findings that most ICT related graduates lacked industry required skills. This coupled with the impressive facilities and infrastructure at the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) amongst others, provided the compulsion for me to harness the resources available to bridge the skills gap.
The ICT University indeed is coming at an auspicious time such as that currently being experienced by our country in which the economy is recovering from recession where it has become imperative to come up with new polices to stimulate economic growth while creating new jobs in the process. Information Communication Technology (ICT) can help in achieving this. It is not only one of the fastest growing sectors in the world i.e. directly creating millions of jobs, but also an important enabler of innovation and development which are catalysts required for growth and advancement across most sectors of the economy.
In Nigeria, broadband penetration has drastically improved since the establishment of the Ministry. The number of mobile subscribers is in the millions with more than half of the subscribers already connected to the internet. Consequently, the mobile platform is emerging as the single most powerful way to extend economic opportunities and key services to millions of people.
ICT can affect economy in various ways, some of which include:
Direct Job Creations: ICT sector is one of the largest employers in the world. With the transformation of the world to more digitally connected one, ICT plays a vital role in the transformation. The statistics shows that by the year 2020, ICT related jobs are said to grow to 22%. Building and running a fast broadband in the country will create jobs to the citizens especially in terms of bridging the broadband penetration gap between the urban and rural areas. The broadband connectivity is an open invitation for Foreign Direct Investment. The more the broadband penetration increases, the more job opportunities in the other sectors of the economy as the broadband platform will allow for new and innovative means of providing services to customers thereby expanding businesses and creating new jobs.
Contribution to GDP Growth(Broadband Penetration): there is a well quoted study that for every 10% increase in broadband penetration, there is a 1.3% increase in GDP. ICT is vital to the economic development of both developing and developed countries. It is estimated that ICT has contributed to one quarter of GDP growth in most developing countries during the first decade of the 21st century. The doubling of mobile data use caused by the increase in 3G connections boosts GDP per capita growth rate by 0.5% globally. Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has recently fine-tuned its infrastructure provision licences for Infrastructure Companies (Infracos). Infraco licences have already been awarded to MainOne and IHS for South West and North Central zones respectively. This would help in achieving effective coverage of the country under the open access model thereby increasing the country’s GDP as more SMEs will be established.
The internet accounts for 3.4% of overall GDP in some economies. Most of this effect is driven by the e-Commerce i.e. people advertising and selling goods online. Take Jumia for example, which is a classic example of how ICT is transforming to the businesses landscape in Nigeria.
It is necessary to explain the relationship between the GDP and employment using Okun’s Law. Economics students will be familiar with Okun's law, named after Arthur Melvin Okun, an American economist, who proposed the relationship in 1962. He recorded an empirically observed relationship between unemployment and reduction in a country's production. The "gap version" of the Law states that for every 1% increase in the unemployment rate, a country's GDP will be roughly an additional 2% lower than its potential GDP.
Emergence of New Services and Industries: Numerous public services have become available online and through mobile phones. The transition to cloud computing is one of the key trends for modernization. ICT has led to the emergence of new services and industries in the country.
For example, e-Government is changing the way governments operate by adopting ICT tools for greater productivity. It will also help in the development of the appropriate skills in e-government training for rural communities. Innovative Village (INVIL) is an ICT based training facility in the rural areas to help farmers showcase and sell their products online. The South Korean Government through Korean International Cooperation (KOICA) has been working in collaboration with the Nigerian Government to make INVIL a reality in our country as it was successfully implemented in South Korea.
The adoption of e-Government will ensure that government services are readily accessible to citizens online. As we implement e-government, new skills have to be taught which will result in new jobs in government as well as services and business in the private sector.
The application of Internet of Things (IOT) paradigm to an urban context is of particular interest as it responds to the strong push of many national governments to adapt to ICT solutions in the management of public affairs thus realizing the Smart City concept. The final aim of Smart City is to make a better use of the public resources, increase quality of services offered to the citizens while reducing the operational cost of the public administration. The problems that would be tackled by the Smart City Initiative ranges from traffic flow control, energy management and distribution, healthcare, education, disaster response to public safety and security. This would help in creating more jobs in these sectors.
ICT Parks and Exhibition Centres are initiatives of the Ministry of Communications where different ICT parks and centers equipped with modern technology business-enabled environment will be established across the country with the aim of attracting ICT innovators and entrepreneurs to converge in a single location to exhibit ICT products and services, this will facilitate cross-fertilization of ideas and engender growth of new businesses.
Workforce Transformation: New “Microwork” platforms developed by companies like eDesk, and eLance help to divide tasks into small components that can then be outsourced to contract workers. The contractors are often based in emerging economies. Microwork platforms allow entrepreneurs to significantly cut costs and get access to qualified workers.
ICT has also contributed to the rise of entrepreneurship, making it much easier for self-starters to access best practices, legal and regulatory information, and marketing and investment resources.
Business Innovation: Social media has established itself as a powerful marketing tool. ICT tools employed within companies help to streamline business processes and improve efficiency. Online companies like Nkataa started by placing adverts on social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc) before the boom of their business. Start-up businesses at the comfort of their homes are able to create a customer base through advertising their business on their social media network platform with little or no advert cost attached e.g. Whatsapp, BBM etc.
Nigeria has enormous human and material resources. We are anxious to develop and provide jobs and also create wealth for our people. We need to move our economy from being resource-based to a knowledge-based ICT-driven economy. We want a strong economy that can help us create jobs and wealth so as to increase GDP and help us fight and defeat poverty. We need to have enough energy to light our homes, schools and offices as well as tour facilities and laboratories. In order to achieve this, there is a strong need to effectively leverage on ICT.
The ICT University is coming as a panacea, as the importance of new skills in the 4th industrial revolution cannot be overemphasized. The 4th industrial revolution will bring more income disparity, active pooling and unemployment etc.
It is therefore important to let you know that investing in human capital development is the single most effective way out of not only promoting growth but of poverty alleviation, job and wealth creation in the 21st century.
Let me assure you that under the President Buhari’s leadership, our resolve has never been stronger. Our commitment to this ICT sector has never been stronger to fuel increased youth employment and empowerment.
I wish to reassure our teeming youth that the ministry would remain steadfast in our efforts to ensure greater progress and prosperity for the nation in initiative like this in creating sustainable economic growth and wealth in the ICT value chain. The Ministry under my watch, is irrevocably committed to celebrate and empower our talented youth to provide innovative solutions to local challenges in Nigeria.
The Ministry will adopt new strategies and approaches that focus more in developing human capital, so as to close the huge gap that exist in public service performance potential in the ICT milieu. Leveraging on ICT is therefore critical to recession exit sooner than expected. Another major initiative towards enhancing job opportunities through ICT is my proposal for the establishment of an ICT Development Bank. I have directed the setting up of an Implementation Committee to formulate profound and realistic grounds for its establishment. It is hoped that this bank cushions the overbearing pressure of ICT companies in Nigeria of huge and scarce financial outlay to deploy equipment and facilities through the provision of venture capital and seed funding initiatives.
Nigeria has enormous human and material resources. We are anxious to develop and provide jobs and create wealth for our people. We need to move our economy from being resource-based to knowledge based ICT driven economy. We want a strong economy that can help us create jobs and wealth so as to increase our GDP and help us fight and defeat poverty. We need to have enough energy to light our homes, schools and offices as well as for factories and laboratories. In order to achieve this, there is a very strong need to effectively leverage on ICTs.
Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me once again to thank the organisers of this event and to particularly commend the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Vice Chancellor for their commitment towards the development of this great institution. Words cannot describe what you are doing on this campus. Keep up the good work.
Let me say here for the records that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to Change Agenda using ICT. Certainly, our country needs a different set of values that are predicted on retooling and reskilling our youths; an economy that is able to give opportunity to young people to work in their chosen professions and build strong and profitable businesses. We recognise that ICT and change will be key and that we must implement and not just talk about jobs and wealth creation.
As I conclude, I want to invite you to the Smart City Nigeria Summit coming up in August 8th – 9th 2017. We are providing a platform for stakeholders in Smart City to showcase their products, services, expertise, experiences, success stories and best practices as we thereafter develop a blue print for its policy and implementation in Nigeria.
Thank you all for listening and God bless you all.
LECTURE BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, BARR ABDUR- RAHEEM ADEBAYO SHITTU
Written by
Adebayo ShittuThe Honorable Minister | Federal Ministry of Communication | Federal Republic of Nigeria at Federal Ministry of Communication
