Preparing African youths for work in the future -By Niran Adedokun

When I graduated from the university a little over two decades back, I knew nothing about writing a proposal. I cannot remember ever having touched a computer let alone being conversant with any computer application that I may need. A few years after, I thought that should be something that every graduate of Theatre Arts, the course I studied, should be exposed to.

But we did not know better as students, not that we could do anything about it anyway. For a lot of people who graduated with me, all that mattered was securing opportunities to attend auditions for stage plays or the freshly developing home video venture. I, and I imagine a lot of my classmates, came out with so much enthusiasm, like having a university degree was the credential to life.

But we all soon realised that life was a little bit more than the idealism on campus. Although having made up my mind to pursue a career in journalism from my time on campus, I did not mind an opportunity to do a few things in the art of performance while scouting for jobs in media houses. A shocker awaited many of us from the University of Ilorin, from where I graduated, however.

True, there was a flurry of activities going on in the theatre and movie spheres at the time, we soon realised that the party was relatively exclusive and that a large dose of nepotism existed in the industry.

As students graduated from theatre departments in those days, they ran to Lagos to seek opportunities. We soon discovered that graduands of older universities like Ibadan, Ife and Benin had people who were already relatively accomplished in the business on whose wings the greenhorns accessed the doors of the few opportunities available then.

I do not think any of my classmates successfully broke into the theatre industry in Nigeria eventually. And it took time before we were able to even get anything to do. As we mostly had no other skill than to act, direct or manage productions, a number of us had to go back to school to acquire other skills before we were eventually able to get into varied organisations like banks, the civil service and corporate organisations that could use our services.

I recall that my friend had to go bag a diploma in computer appreciation before he got anything to do, which would be after a number of years at home. Many of our classmates roamed the streets for years without giving any thought to exploring opportunities to be entrepreneurs. All we wanted was the white collar job that our university education prepared us for. Wrong way to go, I now know but it sadly is still largely the same story in Nigeria, even today!

This is why every time I hear people speak with fervour about the future of Nigeria, I wonder what they really mean it. Nigeria, like most countries on the continent, do not have an educational system viable for today, let alone one contemplating the challenges of tomorrow.

Graduate unemployment in Africa is approaching an endemic proportion and the continent is not doing so much to address the situation. But worse is the prospect for the future as a document with the title, “Building strong workforces to power Africa’s growth: The future of work in Africa”, a result of a research work conducted by GE Africa, which I recently came across, revealed to me.

The document, quoting the International Monetary Fund, suggests that in 10 years, sub-Saharan Africa will be home to 25 per cent of the global population of people aged 24 and younger. This implies that the region would have to create between 15 and 20 million jobs annually over the next three decades to maintain a measure of social stability.

This document submits that successfully employing this growing work force should be cheery news for the continent. This is because providing jobs for this population “will directly raise per capita income, due to the resulting decrease in the non-working population.” And since working people typically save, there would be greater domestic savings providing money for investment which would be immediate and future growth. The paper also notices that the gainful employment of this population will lead to a fall in fertility rates which will impact on the participation of the female gender in the labour force, lower the number of children by family and free more money to spend on the education and health care needs of families.

It is however doubtful that most countries on the continent are working towards embracing the glorious scenario painted above. I will point out two of the reasons which the document identifies as indicative of the continent’s lack of preparation.

The first is the near total reliance on the commodities extraction industry as their main sources of export (90 per cent) as well as revenue earner (70 per cent).Because of the unpredictability of these commodities especially as Africa does not control their prices, the GE document suggests that: “The commodities extraction industry by itself cannot provide the rapid increase in jobs that Africa needs.” This is evident in the gloom that the fall in oil prices has brought on countries like Nigeria and Angola for more than one year.

The second sign of weakness is the skills gaps which a lot of companies operating on the continent find in the labour force. This report indicates “that companies operating in sectors such as oil and gas, transportation and others are unable to find the necessary number of local skilled workers for the desired scale of their operations.” This skills shortage has further worsened prospects of the expansion of manufacturing activities on the continent, something which is important for any chance for sustainable economic development.

To kick-start a reversal of these shortages and prepare for the future therefore, the document suggests a three-pronged approach, the first of which is the need to build a stronger educational system which deliberately prepares recipients for entrepreneurship and industry.

The paper recommends: “Africa’s education systems need strengthening with greater investment. There are insufficient colleges and technical schools to generate the needed skilled labour force. More students should be steered towards STEM subjects – science, technology, education and mathematics. It explains that the United Nations Development Programme says that just one African college student in six will graduate with a science or engineering degree and that Africans must begin to pursue subjects that can open the doors to jobs in the manufacturing industries today and in the future.

In addition to that, it prescribes what it calls “labour market flexibility and talent localisation.” This includes providing the right conditions for domestic and international companies to invest and remain competitive in global markets. It suggests the creation of a level playing field, removing regulatory burdens and red tape, simplifying and streamlining administrative procedures and further improving transparency noting that all of these will most certainly congregate into a substantial acceleration in foreign investment and encourage global companies to scale up their operations and localise production in Africa with the attendant transfer of technology and skills.

As part of this factor, the paper advises that multinational corporations must partner governments on this front pointing out instances of collaborations between GE and African countries in health care delivery and transport as examples of such joint efforts.

Twitter:@niranadedokun