The United Kingdom, UK, is a nation of small businesses. In the UK, there are more than 12.5 million small businesses employing half the workforce and accounting for half the turn over. The Federal Government should take a cue from the UK by paying serious attention to small and medium enterprises. Nigeria, the Giant of Africa, has a population of about 220 million people with more than 250 ethnic groups.
The country is blessed with abundant human and mineral resources. Recall that in the past five decades, the country had developed so many economic policies, however, implementation has been the problem. For instance, during the administration of former military President Ibrahim Babangida, there was the Structural Adjustment Policy and during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, we had the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, NEEDS. All of these policies were well articulated and encapsulated.
At this juncture, let me pose a question: why is it that our economy is in a comatose state? To answer this question, let us take a trip down memory lane. Recall that between 1950 and 1969, the country was divided into four regions namely: The Western Region, the Midwestern Region which was carved out from the old Western Region, the Eastern Region and the Northern Region. Agriculture was the backbone of our economy then. However, in 1958, crude oil was discovered at Oloibiri in present Bayelsa State. The Federal Government's attention subsequently shifted from agriculture to crude oil. As a result, agriculture was relegated to the background. For over five decades, the country operated as a mono-economy, neglecting the economic potential in agriculture, mining and tourism sectors. It is pertinent to state here that in the early 1970s, the Government of Malaysia came to Nigeria to purchase oil palm seedlings, and today, Malaysia is the leading palm oil producer in the world.
There are other challenges that have militated against the country's economic development. These include but not limited to the following: corruption, lack of clear-cut vision, lack of policy direction, lack of political will, policy somersault, lack of involvement of relevant stake holders, insecurity and erratic power supply. Power is very critical as far as economic development is concerned. It is quite unfortunate that the country can only generate 4000 MW of electricity, while South Africa generates 50,000 MW. I think the Federal Government should declare a state of emergency in the power sector. To begin with, what is a policy? The word "policy" can simply be defined as a principle. In most cases, a policy is developed in order to solve a particular problem, be it social or economic. In developing a policy, there is need to follow the concept of "Ends", "ways" and "means". "Ends" are the purpose and objectives of the policy, "ways" are the method and options of actualising those objectives and "means" are the resources that will be required to actualise the objectives.
There is a universally accepted format for developing a policy. It consists of five stages namely: policy formulation stage, planning stage, implementation stage, monitoring stage and evaluation stage. When the government wants to solve a particular problem, it will initiate a policy. For instance, there is the problem of youth unemployment. This is considered to be a serious problem in the sense that the youths constitute nearly 65% of the nation's population. Majority of the youths are unemployed, some of them resort crimes to survive, while others constitute nuisance in different forms. The question is: How do we make the youths to be productive? At a time when the Western nations, the developed economies, saw that the fast developing Asian economies were exporting half of the world's manufacturing output, they fought back with knowledge and technology. So what the government needs to do in order to boost the economy is to invest heavily in human capital development through innovation and technology.
The nation needs to develop a comprehensive national policy on youth empowerment. In developing the policy, the first stage is policy initiation which is: "The development of the National Policy on Youth Empowerment". The second stage is the planning stage. First, there is need to constitute a panel of experts that will develop the draft policy. In constituting the panel of experts, it is pertinent to ensure that relevant stakeholders are involved to make their inputs. In this case, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Employment, Labor and Productivity, the Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, youth organisations and non-governmental organisations should be co-opted, while the Minister of Youths and Sports Development will be the chairman. At the planning stage, the first step has to do with the Training Needs Assessment.
In carrying out the Needs Assessment the following questions must be asked: who is a youth? What categories of youths are we supposed to train? Which areas are they supposed to be trained? Who is going to handle the training? Is the training going to be done locally or overseas? What will be the duration? Who will be responsible for the cost? How are the trainees going to be empowered financially? It is also important that the objectives of the policy be clearly stated and well spelt out. In this case, some of the objectives will include: to make the youths self-reliant, to enable them contribute meaningfully to economic development, to reduce unemployment rate. For the implementation stage, the Federal Government will select the candidates and institutions where training will be conducted. Furthermore, the Federal Government will make provision for successful candidates in setting up their businesses. The monitoring and evaluation of the policy can be done by consultants that will be engaged by the Ministry who will assess the progress of the scheme and make recommendations. The draft policy is expected to be presented to the National Council On Youths for consideration and approval. Once the draft document is approved, it becomes a working document.
Other areas that will require Federal Government's attention are the agriculture, mining and tourism sectors. In order to ensure food security, the Federal Government should encourage the sub-national governments to embark on aggressive farming by embracing mechanised farming. The state governments should ensure that farmers in their respective states are provided with necessary inputs such as lands, fertilizer, tractors, ploughs and harvesters. Farmers should be encouraged to form cooperative societies so that it will be easier for them to have access to this equipment. Furthermore, it would be a good idea if the state governors could establish agro-allied industries in each of the three senatorial districts. This will enable them to process their farm produce. Food crops like rice, corn, cassava, yams, tomatoes and dairy products can be processed, packaged and exported to generate forex for the nation.
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Moreover, the Federal Government should try to develop our mining and tourism sectors so as to generate foreign exchange. Kenya makes a lot of money from tourism; maybe we should learn from them. There are quite a number of mineral deposits that the country can explore to generate money. What is needed is the political will on the part of the government and commitment on the part of the masses. Finally, I would like to make the following recommendations for the Federal Government:
*Set up a think-tank committee of economic experts that will develop an economic blue print for the nation;
*Create an enabling environment that will allow businesses to thrive;
*Develop and implement policies that will promote export of non-oil goods;
*Ensure that the ongoing insecurity in the country occasioned by widespread terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, insurgency and all forms of criminalities is nipped in the bud;
*Revamp all the ailing refineries and make them functional;
*Provide 24 hours power supply;
*Strengthen the anti-graft agencies to enable them discharge their duties effectively;
*Government to explore economic potential in agriculture, mining and tourism sectors.
·Oladipupo, an economic analyst, wrote via: [email protected]
