One of the leading economic think tanks in Nigeria, Prof. Doyin Salami, the Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, has said Nigeria needs at least 19 million new jobs yearly to address the rising unemployment rate ravaging the nation.
Speaking at a webinar on privatisation organised by the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Salami said Nigeria’s economic situation is severe and in need of investment.
He said, “Right now, Nigeria’s economic challenge is a very significant and potentially severe one. Yes, I know our economy hasn’t performed well; we have seen so far this year a contraction in the economy, and prospects are that for the rest of the year, the economy will continue to contract.
“If Nigeria’s economy is going to grow, investment is going to be at the heart of that growth. Up until now, our attention has typically been focused on the Federal Government especially in terms of the balance of its recurrent and capital spending.”
The economist put Nigeria’s investment to GDP ratio around 15 to 18 percent.
“If we are going to make any meaningful progress, we need an investment to GDP ratio that does not fall at any time perhaps over the next decade below 25 to 30 per cent. So, no matter how we look at it, investment is going to be the fundamental catalyst for growth,” he said.
Salami said the nation’s combined underemployment and unemployment rate stood at about 54 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
He said, “When you look at it in terms of the youth element of our labour force, it is somewhere around 64 per cent. More than half of Nigeria’s labour force is either unemployed completely or underemployed.
“Now if we are going to remedy this, Nigeria needs to be creating roughly 19 million jobs. If we are going to do that, it cannot be the responsibility of the government sector. The whole revenue profile of the government sector in Nigeria, federal and state, is somewhere around 10 per cent.”