During Nairametrics’ just concluded webinar titled ‘Economic Outlook for Nigeria in 2023’, one of the panelists Cheta Nwanze, spoke on how Nigerians can leverage on the opportunities present in the different states of the federation.
He also spoke on how individuals can upskill for higher income in the advent of emerging technology (AI, Cloud, etc).
Highlighted below are a few key points worth mentioning.
Competitive advantage across states: Nwanze, who is the Lead Partner at SBM Intelligence, discussed how to make use of the resources across each states of the country.
- Ogun state, has a close proximity to Lagos with some individuals living in places like Akute and working in Lagos. Such individuals can develop the state with the income made from Lagos.
- Additionally, a lot of manufacturing industries are being set up there and there are opportunities for more
- Akwa Ibom state has enjoyed good administration since 1999. There is currently a huge tech community there asides the various developments going on
- Abuja has its neighboring state Nassarawa, taking advantage of Abuja’s entrepreneurial activities
Cheta further stated that Nigeria needs to take advantage of its six-hour proximity to Europe to export products, as countries like Bangladesh is already doing.
Nigerians relocating abroad for work: He said that japa is an advanced job creation programme and that it is neither intrinsically good nor bad.
- Nigeria has always been a net exporter of its people to other countries
- The Nigerian economy has never been able to generate as many jobs for its population.
- What we have seen so far is that even people in the mid to senior positions relocate.
- It may not seem positive in the short to medium term, but in the long-term it is an avenue to build the economy through remittances
On new AI technology like ChatGPT: According to him, ChatGPT will reduce barriers to entry for those in the media, even those involved in financial analysis, etc. Therefore, a lot of people will therefore need to upskill
- Content creation is the country’s largest exporter, not Agriculture
- Although the market for content is crowded, there room for more
- Agri tech will provide an opportunity as the country needs to figure out ways to distribute food to its people.