Nigeria faces a number of social, political, and developmental issues, the most serious of which is the developing education crisis, which is the result of long-overdue reforms exacerbated by recent global health and economic crises.
Problems exist at all levels of institutional education in Nigeria. According to UNICEF, roughly 10.5 million Nigerian children aged 5 to 14 are currently out of school. Only 61% of 6-11-year-olds regularly attend primary school, and only 35.6% of children aged 3 to 5 receive early childhood education.
These early dropouts frequently never achieve the education levels essential for a rising economy to thrive, and a sizable part of Nigeria’s juvenile population enters adulthood without basic literacy abilities. This lack of knowledge creates practically permanent shackles of inequality and poverty.
In contrast, Nigerian colleges have been chastised for producing elites rather than promoting access to higher education. Every year, around 1.8 million Nigerians apply for only 800,000 university slots. Higher education institutions must reposition themselves and focus more on what Nigeria requires in the twenty-first century, including a large investment in capacity building through the use of online learning. It can’t afford to be stagnant much longer.
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, enrolment in Nigerian tertiary education increased substantially in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but has remained stable at around 10% since 2003.
Even young Nigerian university students encounter long-standing institutional issues. Andrew Alli, CEO of SouthBridge Investment Bank, recently advocated that, in addition to expanding access, educational reforms should focus on improving Nigerians’ technical abilities in order to prepare workers for a 21st-century economy. He claims that Nigerian education is locked in an atavistic method of learning.
The issue, however, is not with the value Nigerians place on education. On the contrary, households in Nigeria spend a significant portion of their money, at least 20%, on education. The Nigerian diaspora in the United States is among the highly educated populations, with over 60% of Nigerian Americans aged 25 or older having a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to less than 35% of the total US population.
The pandemic has exacerbated Nigeria’s already high unemployment rates, with 37% of students experiencing temporary or permanent disruptions to their education. The lack of computers and internet access has led to many promising youths returning to subsistence labor or street trade. Remote jobs, on the other hand, would allow them to continue their education.
Nigeria’s labor market is plagued by a problem that is all too frequent in our century. Employers are scrambling for skilled employees as many bright young Nigerians are denied access to high-quality postsecondary education, forcing them to join the labor market lacking core skills. Despite Nigeria’s unemployment rate of over 20 million people, leading local firms frequently admit that hiring skilled talent is difficult. Slow adoption of digital transformation would further widen the gap between supply and demand for qualified personnel.
Imagine employers collaborating with skills-focused online institutions to provide realistic route programs to Nigerian students seeking to avoid graduate unemployment.
For businesses, this might equate to a new pre-recruitment process, giving a multitude of data points to aid in the selection of the best candidate. On the other side of the bargain, students would gain valuable job-market skills and possibly receive money.
Sterling Bank and Dangote Cement are two outstanding instances of this proactive and innovative strategy. In order to increase the employability of Nigerians, the different companies have teamed with Nexford University, an American online education portal.
Additional synergies may ensue. For some businesses, pre-recruitment funding initiatives may completely replace costly, wasteful, and subjective hiring practices. Employers might also use EdTech businesses’ case studies to help build curricula and bring a new realism to higher education.
High mobile penetration, combined with Nigeria’s tech-savvy youth population, serves as a beacon of hope and the ingredients for quick adoption of online education.
Government measures, including as President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent inauguration of many job programs, could be a positive move. However, promising to provide 750,000 short-term employment opportunities to unemployed graduates by 2021 will not solve a deeper problem. While economic mismanagement, rising insecurity, and outdated institutions are serious issues, Nigerian society does not lack talented, bright, and ambitious youth.
Nigerian business leaders should take on the responsibility and embrace the challenge to help their country’s young generation develop the skills needed to thrive in Africa’s fastest-growing economy. The reward will be worth their investment.
