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With a population of over 200 million with youths accounting for about 70 per cent, as well as an unemployment rate above 50 per cent, stakeholders maintain that Nigeria must harness the entrepreneurship space as a tool to mitigate joblessness for national growth. GLORIA NWAFOR writes.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have proven to be effective in halting poverty and pillars upon which the global economy rests.
Long before now, they are regarded as the source of most new jobs and are a key driver of economic growth.
Indeed, Nigeria as Africa’s most populous country and largest economy with a population of over 200 million and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $477.39 billion as of 2022, currently faces significant economic challenges, including a low GDP per capita of $2,184 as of 2022, high unemployment rate at 33.3 per cent and one of the highest poverty rates globally with about 63 per cent of persons living within the country considered to be multidimensionally poor.
While the majority blamed the present situation on poor and ineffective leadership, there is an argument about how the government has become a clog in the wheel of development. This is coupled with the submission of stakeholders that the cost of corruption in Nigeria is unimaginable.
They stressed that a lot of investors have withdrawn their investments due to a harsh operating environment and the government’s obstacles to the ease of doing business in the country.
However, to address this, stakeholders, who gathered at the 20th yearly lecture/ 29th anniversary of the Catholic Brothers United (CBU), at St. Agnes Parish, Maryland, in Lagos, submitted that entrepreneurship was the way to go in tackling the rising unemployment rate, create jobs and push the economy out of the woods.
Speaking on the theme ‘Entrepreneurship Drive: A Tool for Mitigating Unemployment for National Growth,’ the event’s chairman and former Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of EcoBank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan, said Nigeria, which reportedly houses over 40 million registered businesses, its SME sector has the potential to eradicate unemployment and poverty in Nigeria when leveraged and supported fully.
He queried why has the sector not fully grown to harness its potential and what should be done to enable it to play its rightful role.
Akinwuntan highlighted challenges of ease of doing business, human capital shortage, poor access to the market, lack of access to finance, inflation and the unstable value of the Naira hindering the sector from tapping its potential.
He maintained that no doubt, Nigeria has abundant human resources, however needed to be skilled appropriately to support the entrepreneurship drive.
According to him, basic discipline, technical skills, business ethics and sound values are required for entrepreneurship to thrive.
Noting that the technology, telecoms and creative arts sectors where the country has recorded growth could be leveraged.
He said that the inability to access foreign exchange and high interest rates, among others, were some of the challenges faced by local entrepreneurs and SMEs regarding access to finance.
On inflation and the value of the Naira, the ex-bank chief said Nigeria needed more export-oriented entrepreneurs to stabilise the currency and produce more locally to mitigate inflation.
According to him, “that entrepreneurship provides a unique opportunity for us to mitigate the scourge of unemployment and poverty is empirically proven when we consider the role of entrepreneurship in leading economies such as the US, China, Japan, Germany, and India, which are the top five countries by GDP globally.”
Similarly, Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, Rev. Fr. George Ehusani, who moderated the panel session, lamented that rather than the government facilitating the harnessing of the potential of Nigerians, he alleged that the government was busy creating bottlenecks and placing obstacles on the way.
According to him, the government’s bureaucracy in Nigeria stifles private initiatives by way of corruption and gross inefficiency.
“They hinder the burgeoning of small and medium scale businesses. For example, Lagos State has the highest Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), but at the same time, it ranks as one of the highest in double taxation. Such double or multiple taxation is replicated in many states and local governments across the country, sometimes, taxing small businesses into liquidation. The obstacles which the government often constitutes in Nigeria needs to be addressed very squarely,” he said.
He added that boosting entrepreneurship in the era of the fifth revolution was to embrace technology and to loosen up some of the bottlenecks that have hindered geometric progression in the past few decades.
The discussants, Nelson Akerele, MD/CEO of Royal Exchange Prudential Life Assurance Plc; Dr. Omotayo Omotosho, former Director-General, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and Rotimi Oyekanmi, MD/CEO of Renaissance Group West Africa, canvassed the need for parents to inculcate ethical values for the younger generation to excel, create long term goals for sustainability as well as have the level of integrity for competitive, aptitude to continue and level of developing competency.
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