Oluwabusuyi Fakanlu, co-founder & MD CAF Universal LCC, has noted that Nigeria’s technology industry can address the scourge of unemployment in the country and put food on the tables of the masses.
He stated this when sharing his thoughts in the just concluded first edition of the Techeconomy Business Series.
According to him, 60-70% of the people who are gainfully employed in the developed countries are employed by the private sector.
Although the government had to implement infrastructural facilities, entrepreneurs and business owners drive the economy through the instrumentation of Technology.
“The same way construction is taking care of unemployment in the country technology can also guarantee good jobs and put food on their tables. We should not mean things up if you go to the Western world where things are working the government only makes the environment conducive, most especially in the aspect of helping them with the infrastructure, building tech hubs, and sometimes exemptions from taxes from the equipment.
“It is the entrepreneurs. The business owners that drive the economy if you go to the United States of America today, you will discover that about 60-70% of the people that are gainfully employed are in the private sector. This needs to be encouraged in Nigeria so that we can ease the pressure on the government. The Nigerian government should not go into the business of Technology they should encourage people like Hillary and other ‘Tech Guys’ to take care of the sector while they just make the environment conducive.
According to Statista, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is forecast to be 4.52% in 2024, while unemployed people in Nigeria are forecast to be 3.54m in 2024.
The employment rate in Nigeria is forecast to be 82.02% in 2024 and the total labour force in Nigeria is forecasted to be 78.14m in 2024.
Similarly, in the latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics, in urban areas, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.0%, while rural unemployment stood at 4.3%.
“The unemployment rate increased to 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2024 from 5.0% in Q3 2023.
“The unemployment rate among males was 4.3 percent and 6.2% among females. The unemployment rate in urban areas was 6.0 percent in Q1 2024, the same in Q3 2023,” the NBS report read.
Speaking further, he noted that the Federal Government of Nigeria is trying its best to ameliorate the many challenges, but Nigeria needs her own Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and entrepreneurs to take center stage thereby driving the economy.
“The government is trying its best because they have a lot of space to cope with, and When you are talking about the government, you are talking about the neck that is carrying the head. We are about 250 million in Nigeria, though the last census capped our population at around 220 million. You and I know that we are more than 220 million. We are around 250 million people in Nigeria, so for a single government to take care of these numbers of people it’s a whole lot and it’s telling on them. You must give it to them, because in their little way.
“But, if you look at the developed country, you can see today that entrepreneurs drive the technology aspect of their economy. The United States of America can be called a leading nation today with all the huge investments that the government made in their space exploration, as we speak today, the United States of America still relies heavily on Indian individuals like Elon Musk to drive their technology advancement.
“If you recall, sometime in July, NASA sent some people to Space and they were trapped in Space, it was Elon Musk through Space X that is putting in the work to bring those trapped in Space back into the earth.
Oluwabusayo spoke glowingly of the giant strides of Nigerian entrepreneurs in the Fintech industry and challenged budding entrepreneurs and builders to look inward.
I think we are very good at current financial technology, you also mentioned Vesti that are also doing well in Fintech and global mobilization. They have this platform where they can help you if you want to study abroad and assist you in getting admission. If we want to take advantage of the “tech” like I submitted earlier… our government has a lot to cope with and if you look inward you will discover that a lot of us like the Estate I live in Lagos do not have light and we are on the verge of sorting it out. So we need to look inward.
“If people are well informed about the possibilities, Mark Zuckerberg has visited Nigeria several times, Bill Gates has been in Nigeria, but I am not sure if Elon Musk has come to visit. These are people who have seen opportunities.
“Nigeria, has, maybe the highest number of productive youth, if we look at the people from Ages 18-35 those are the people that form about 60% of the population you can imagine the opportunities that lie ahead of us if the information is out there, if we can get people educated, if the government can make the environment conducive, fix the power problem so that the little we have we are not using it to generate to power this sector. I think these are the list that the government can do to create jobs in this particular sector”, he added.
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