BusinessDay 07 Jan 2019

Monday 07 January 2019
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Police recruitment: 232,000 excess applicants
underscore Nigeria’s unemployment problem
MICHEAL ANI
The recent announcement
by
the Nigeria Police
on the excessive
turn out of people
applying for recruitment
into the law enforcement
agency, affirms the critical
state of the nation’s unemployment
crisis, analysts say.
As at 1:00pm, 2nd Jan
2018, the Police Service
Commission (PSC) said it
had received applications
from 242,455 persons in its
on-going recruitment exercise,
even though it plans to
enlist only 10,000 of these
numbers into the Nigeria
Police Force.
This figure shows an excess
of more than 232,000
applicants vowing for the
positions, a number analysts
say is a tip of an iceberg of
how Nigerians jostle for jobs
as falling infrastructural de-
velopment and slowdown
in economic activities have
forced companies turn off
the tap of recruitment.
This number of applications
that the police received
as at that date implies that
for each successful applicant,
23 others will be rejected.
That is, assuming that
the applications stop at this
number, which is unlikely.
Data from the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
has shown that the rate of
unemployment has been on
a consistent increase in the
past three years, settling as
high as 23.1 percent in the
third quarter of 2018 from
18.8 percent recorded in the
same quarter of the previous
year.
In nominal terms, a total
of 20.9 million Nigerians are
unemployed, signalling that
about 3.1 million people
have entered into the unemployment
trap in less than a
year. The NBS had earlier in
Q4 2017 reported the number
to be 17.8 million.
“I am not surprised at
the statistics released by the
Nigerian police with regards
to the number of participants
that signified interest
as against those that are required
as it is an indication
of the massive unemployment
in the society,” says
Timothy Olawale, Director-
General, Nigerian Employers
Consultative association.
“There is no way that the
government despite all its
efforts in creating jobs, is going
to succeed if the focus is
on white-collar job creation
alone, which is what they are
throwing up,” Olawale said.
An average university
student in Nigeria spends
about 4 years in the university,
if and only if the Academic
Staff Union of Universities
and /or the Non Academic
staff union does not embark
upon any strike whatsoever.
For about two months
now, teachers in public
universities in Nigeria
have been on an indefinite
strike designed to compel
the Federal Government to
meet their complaints on
issues including poor funding,
poor remuneration and
low infrastructural developments
in school.
“It is not as if there are
no jobs in the country, but
the skills required to match
these jobs are not there. That
is why we say the government
should identify what
those skills are and make
concerted efforts to develop
capacity in those skills; that
way our youth will fit into
those jobs that are available,”
Olawale said.
“Furthermore, there is
the need to imbibe in our
youths the entrepreneurial
spirit so that they can be selfemployed,”
he added.
L-R: Segun Agbekeye, group head, internal control, risks/compliance, Odu’a Investment Company Limited; Adewale Raji, Odu’a GMD/
CEO; Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State governor; Tope Arowolo, Odu’a group head, property development and management, and Yinka
Tunji-Ojo, Odu’a general manager finance, during Odu’a team’s business meeting with the governor in Ado Ekiti.
Nigeria’s e-payment transactions hit N56.85trn – reports
Reports from the Nigerian
Interbank
Settlement System
(NIBSS) have indicated
that Nigeria’s electronic
payment (e-payment) services
recorded transactions
worth N56.85 trillion from
January to September 2018.
The report, obtained by
the News Agency of Nigeria
on Sunday, showed an increase
of N16.4 trillion when
compared with the N40.45
trillion that was recorded in
the corresponding period of
2017.
The report showed that
most of the electronic transactions
were done through
the NIBSS Instant Payment
(NIP), Point of Sale (PoS),
Automated Transfer Machines
(ATMs), Mobile Money,
Electronic Bills Payment
(E-Bills) and Web payments.
A breakdown of the report
showed that ATMs transactions
grew from N4.61 trillion
in 2017 to N4.76 trillion at the
end of the third quarter of
2018.
Also, the volume of transactions
on ATMs under the
period in review grew from
560.86 million in 2017, to
650.06 million in 2018. The
report showed a rise of about
N635 billion in the use of POS
machines to carry out payments
by Nigerians.
Under the review period,
98.73 million transactions
worth N975 billion were carried
out using POS in 2017,
while in 2018, the volume
grew to 196.83 million, valued
at N1.61 trillion.
Similarly, the volume
of transactions carried out
by Nigerians, using mobile
money rose from N795.18
billion in 2017, to N1.22 trillion
as at September 2018.
Also, using the web payment
channel, the total
value of transactions under
the review period rose from
N129.24 billion in 2017, to
N183.07 billion in 2018.
However, the value of
such transactions on e-bill
payments, which allowed
customers to pay utility bills
such as power, cable and
so on online, declined from
N420.73 billion in 2017 to
N370 billion in 2018.
Meanwhile a financial
analyst, Patricia Auta, has
said that the NIBSS report
showed an increased awareness
and use of technology
by individuals and businesses
in the country.
Auta urged the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to
intensify efforts on cashless
economy, especially in states,
to further grow the electronic
payment space.
BUSINESS DAY
NEWS
41
‘Adamu Adamu current attention
to education, not enough’
KELECHI EWUZIE
Concerned industry
professionals in education
sector have
described the performance
of Adamu Adamu, the
minister of education, in the
last three years as being pedestrian.
They observe that his approach
to issues concerning
the education sector since his
appointment to office leaves
much to be desired, as the
minister should think deep
for solutions to the decay in
the sector.
In a interview with BusinessDay
they feel the minister
should recognise the need
to strengthen proactive programmes
and activities that
enhance quality education
and offer knowledge, skill and
values for Nigerian citizens to
enable them compete with
any economy in the world.
Maurice Onyiriuka says
the education sector still
struggles with policy gaps
and implementation backlog,
adding that this issue remains
unresolved not because the
education minister don’t have
ideas as to how to approach
the outstanding issues, but
because there have not been
consensus, the realism and
even the courage to confront
the challenges.
Onyiriuka expects the
minister to address the situation
in the education sector
with gravity instead of the kid
gloves he has used to attend to
the mountainous problems.
Odion and Omofonwan
say in their study, ‘Educational
System in Nigeria Problems
and Prospects’ that the gross
under funding of the educational
sector in the country in
general and the neglect of the
maintenance of the physical
facilities and instructional and
living conditions have deteriorated
in many of these schools,
classrooms, libraries and labo-
Nigerian states budget for 2019 so far
ISRAEL ODUBOLA
As it is now, 33 out
of the 36 states
of the Federation
have presented
their budgets to their respective
State Houses of
Assembly. The states that
are yet to present theirs are
Adamawa, Cross River and
Zamfara.
Lagos State, the commercial
and financial
nerve centre of Nigeria,
presented a budget of
N852.317 billion, N548 billion
lower than the N1.4
trillion presented for 2018.
The proposed budget of
Lagos State for 2019 is
the highest nationwide,
though this is not surprising,
as the state has the
largest internally generated
revenue in Nigeria.
The states with the second
and third highest proposed
budget for 2019 are
Akwa Ibom and Rivers.
The two south-southern
states earmarked N670.7
billion and N480 billion,
respectively.
Nasarawa, a state in
the North-central zone,
presented a budget worth
N86.4 billion, the least
across the federation. The
state has endowment in
agriculture, tourism and
solid minerals like coal
and iron ore.
Apart from Nasarawa,
eight states proposed a
budget less than N150 billion
are Abia (N139.5bn),
Borno (N125.82bn), Enugu
(N109bn), Ekiti (N129.9bn),
Gombe (N118.7bn), Kogi
(N146.7bn), Plateau
(N148bn) and Taraba
(N146.7bn).
Regional analysis of
ratories are nothing to write
home about, all leading to decline
in academic standards.
It is the view of stakeholders
that the minister must begin
to look at ways to source
for funds to focus attention on
these areas if these educational
institutions are to get out of
the woods.
Comfort Uyo, a university
lecturer, is of the opinion that
Adamu Adamu can achieve
success if he is to implement
the correct policies, but
doubts the possibility since
he is not solely in charge of
key decision when it concerns
funding.
For example, since the introduction
of the Universal
Basic Education (UBE), the
education sector at primary
school is still characterised
by poor performance and an
increasing number of out-of
–school children and one of
the major explanations for
this is the crisis of funding occasioned
by inadequate preparation
of the extent to which
available resources could last.
Again, widespread cases
of arrears of unpaid teachers’
salaries - of up to six months
in many cases, frequent industrial
disputes and strike
actions by university teachers
as well as shameful cases
of primary and secondary
school pupils using tree
shades as their classrooms are
some of the manifestations
of poor funding of Nigeria’s
education. For Babatunde
Oguntona, an educationist
the greatest investment education
the minister can give
Nigerians during his term as
minister is to encourage human
capital development.
According to Oguntona,
“I strongly believe that only
what is required from government
and the minister of
education is to make available
resources that can be used for
the development of human
capital so we can have good
the budget of the 33 states
shows that the South-West
region has the highest cumulative
budget of N2.011
trillion, higher than that
of South-South, which
currently stood at N1.793
trillion, but could be overtaken
if Cross River State
present a budget of at least
N219 billion.
The combined budget
of South-East, North-
Central and North-West
currently stand at N878
billion, N894.34 billion
and N1.053 trillion, respectively.
The North-East region
has the lowest cumulative
budget of N676 billion,
although can only
exceed that of the South-
East region if Zamfara
State proposes at least
N202 budget for 2019.