According to the World Bank, 80 million individuals of working age will not have a full-time job by 2030 if Nigeria doesn’t boost its employment rate.
It also predicted that 23 million more Nigerians will live in extreme poverty by 2030 if the nation’s poverty rate doesn’t drop. The international bank published “Nigeria Development Update (December 2022): Nigeria’s Choice,” which contained this information.
The research states that better jobs must be created before the nation can alleviate poverty and spur economic progress. According to the bank, the bulk of poverty in Nigeria is tied to one’s place of employment, and even having a job does not guarantee one would be able to leave it. Poor persons were shown to be far more prone to to work in agriculture.
Nigeria was one of the countries with the strongest growth rates in the 2000s, according to the global bank, but it fell short in creating the institutions needed to support structural change and employment development. According to the report, this has caused Nigeria to struggle to keep up with the growth rates and transformation of its peers since the early 2010s, as evidenced by the country’s GDP per capita falling from US$2,280 in 2010 to US$2,097 in 2020 and an increase in the number of citizens living in poverty from 68 million to about 80 million.
The 2021 Human Development Index places Nigeria as one of the least developed nations in the world, with a score of 160 out of 188.
It said, “Per-capita income will plateau, 80 million working-age Nigerians will not have a full-time job by 2030 if the employment rate does not improve, and 23 million more Nigerians will live in extreme poverty by 2030 if the poverty rate does not fall.”
Explaining how crucial the creation of these jobs is, the Washington-based bank stated, “Creating better jobs is a necessary condition for accelerating poverty reduction and economic transformation.
“It is estimated that 3.5 million Nigerians enter the labor market every year, a number that cannot be absorbed by a public sector-led economy. This large number represents 41 per cent of the total new entrants in the labor market in West Africa.
“However, even if job creation were to catch up with the expansion of the labor force, Nigerian workers would not fully benefit if other socio-economic conditions remain unchanged. A child born in Nigeria today will be 36 per cent as productive in adulthood as she could be if she enjoyed more and better-quality education and full health (the sixth-lowest percentage globally).
“A combination of limited job creation, booming demographics, and unfulfilled aspirations is pushing young Nigerians to emigrate abroad in search of gainful employment.”
According to the World Bank, unlocking private investment will create more and better-quality jobs in a sustainable manner in the nation since the private sector is at the heart of the development process and has been a critical component in every sustained growth success story around the world.
It said, “In Nigeria, the private sector is responsible for an estimated 90 per cent of GDP and 94 per cent of jobs, and thus is the only option for creating job-enhancing growth.”
It added, “Hence, despite the current challenges, Nigeria can still chart a sustainable and inclusive growth path based on solid economic institutions with a sound macroeconomic environment that reduces regional disparities, strong human capital that will help children reach their full potential and acquire the skills needed for a modern economy, and productive firms that create more and better jobs.”
