Article summary
- The CEO of Cowrywise said the new administration in Nigeria will have to come out with the right policies to attract human capital from across the world.
- He said Nigeria is currently at the receiving end of global human capital mobility as more young Nigerians move out of the country.
- He, however, noted that the country can flip the situation with the right policies.
The Chief Executive Officer and founder of Cowrywise, Mr. Razak Ahmed, has said that the new administration of Bola Tinubu would have to make a bold statement with a strong human capital policy to encourage Nigerian youths to stay in the country.
Speaking during the Nairametrics Q2 2023 Economic Outlook Webinar, which was held over the weekend, Ahmed said while human capital mobility is a good thing, Nigeria has been at the receiving end as more human capital exit the country than is coming in.
He noted that the policy to be put in place should not only ensure that Nigerians that go out of the country for education can easily come back but also encourage the citizens of other countries to see Nigeria as the right destination for them.
Ahmed acknowledged that migration is not peculiar to Nigeria as people move across the world in search of better opportunities. He said that the Nigerian government must recognize this global force of human capital movement and put in place the right policies for the country to benefit from it.
Bold statement
Speaking on what the current administration can do in terms of human capital development, Ahmed said:
- “The current administration needs to make a very bold statement when it comes to human capital. And one thing that is true universally is that humans generally seek the capacity to improve their well beings through education and skill acquisition. That is a universal truth. It is applicable in Nigeria, it’s applicable in the East, and it’s applicable in the West.
- “So, we need policies to enable people to acquire the right education and the right skill sets so they can ultimately contribute towards economic growth. This matters a whole lot. And one key agenda that this current administration needs to push is unlocking opportunities in the educational sector, for example, through credits like education loans, which are common in the Western world.”
Human capital mobility
While noting that the current migration presents some threats to Nigeria because of the impacts on human capital, Ahmed said the situation also presents an opportunity for Nigeria to make itself attractive to human capital from other countries.
- “While exits present some threats right now primarily because of the existing human capital stock that we have found it extremely attractive to move out, I think from the government policy standpoint, it’s also an opportunity that human capital is extremely mobile right now globally, which means that the government can come up with policies to ensure that we do not just have an agenda to move out and move back, but we also have other nationals of other countries from Eastern Europe from Asia from US from Iraq, you know, looking at Nigeria, as the preferred destination for them to live and work.
- And that’s the opportunity really, so there is a need for very bold policy statements in terms of making Nigeria the right destination for human capital globally. So that we are not just relying on our human capital stock, we are also benefiting from the global trend of human capital mobility,” he said.
The Nairametics Q2 Economic Outlook Webinar brought together experts across sectors of the economy to dissect economic issues and make projections for the next half of the year.
Watch the full video here:
