Policy inconsistency worsening Nigeria’s unemployment, says NECA
By Chinyere Bassey
Ikeja, Aug. 1, 2018 (NAN) The Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) said on Wednesday said that policy inconsistency was largely responsible for the worsening unemployment problem in Nigeria.
Oshinowo, whose tenure in NECA comes to an end in December, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ikeja that government’s persistent scuttling of its own policies was to blame for Nigeria’s high unemployment.
He said that many laudable policies put in place by government to turn around the economy and create millions of jobs had often ended up being torpedoed by the same government that made the policies.
“I have served on various committees that initiated policies and recommendations that if implemented would have catapulted the economy to a higher level beyond its present state.
“The case of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council is a good example. It conducted research on how raw material can be sourced locally for industries.
“But sadly, various governments failed to give action on what should have served as a back-bone of the country’s backward integration and industrialisation. We are still sad why government back-tracked on the research.’’
Oshinowo said that the Nigerian Breweries Plc., was also spurred to embrace backward integration when government banned importation of malted barley.
“Nigerian Breweries realised that if it has to survive, it is not going to import barley which is a key input in brewery.
“The company acquired large expanse of land in the Northern part of the country and started machanised farming to generate sufficient quantity of sorghum or maize.’’
According to him, the compulsion to have appropriate technology made companies to invest in technological innovation for malting sorghum because the technology for malting maize was different from that of barley.
He said that the technology gave rise to new brands of beer and also attracted other African countries to come into the country to under-study Nigeria as the leadway country on malt sorghum.
The NECA chief noted that the companies impacted on the socio-economic development of the immediate communities and created employment for youths as well as improved living standards.
“Beyond getting sorghum, the companies encouraged hard growers scheme that improved the lives of villages and developed infrastructure.
“But years later, government withdrew the policy and the companies lost their benefits,’ he lamented.
“Why will the youths not be unemployed when the country has not made the best use of its resources.
“We have industries whose main input is imported because we created employment elsewhere.’’
Oshinowo said it was regrettable that the situation was not different from the nation’s oil and gas sector, where government spent huge resources on refineries turn-around maintenance without the refineries functioning.
He, however, called on the government to emulate the achievements made in the cement sub-sector through exporting cement.
Oshinowo argued that introducing the cement model in the rice production revolution going on in some states would tackle unemployment and promote inclusive growth.
He also advised the present administration to listen and involve business operators in the implantation of its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan to achieve desired recovery for the economy. (NAN)
CHIN/ENN/SN
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Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu/Silas Nwoha