MOVING NIGERIA FORWARD THROUGH VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL

EDUCATION SKILLS ACQUISITION

Abstract
This work focuses on a veritable process of moving the nation forward in order to
achieve a self-reliant workforce. It also highlights that achieving saleable skills by
Nigeria youths and adults, is the only viable way to eliminate the present day soaring
unemployment, poverty and socio-economic ills that are currently ravaging the populace.
It is a demonstration of your willingness to partner with the Federal Government in
moving our great country forward, in line with our policy on public private partnership in
economic development. In this regard, I call on other stakeholders to emulate this trend,
in the hope of stimulating insights on various issues that would endanger the positive
transformation of our economy. Categories of students to be trained in the tertiary
institutions are in the area of agricultural science education, business education,
fine/applied arts and home economics education including their service areas.
Highlighted are some problems that affects the smooth-running of the programme like:
inadequate funding, incessant power supply in the economy, lack of leadership and
accountability, massive corruption, etc. as a way out, the work recommends that there
should be adequate and purposeful funding, elimination of corruption, good leadership
and followership, among others.
Introduction

Nigeria's “promised land” now is her ability to provide her teeming youths, adults
and women with gainful employment in order to achieve economic self-reliance. This will
reduce or eliminate the present soaring unemployment, poverty and socio-economic ills
that are currently ravaging the population. To achieve this important economic goal, the
Federal Government, through the instrument of the National Policy Education (FRN,
2004), has set the ball rolling by trying to give the appropriate enabling environment to
the citizens as to imbibe the culture of acquiring skills in vocational and technical
education right from the primary school stage to that of the tertiary institution level. The
policy, therefore, defined vocational education as that form of education which is
obtainable in technical colleges. It’s designed as a form of skills acquisition for basic,
scientific knowledge and attitude required as craftsmen and technicians at sub-
professional level.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In Nigeria of today, vocational education has become so important that it is the fastest
growing educational market that delves into self-employment training and activities. The
committee or Research and Publication of the American Vocation Association (1954)
defined vocational education as the education 'designed to develop skills, abilities,
understandings, attitudes, work habits and appreciation encompassing knowledge and
information needed by workers to enter or make progress in employment on a useful and
productive basis. Maduka (1980), defined vocational education as a type of education
deliberately designed for the development of skills and knowledge which can be useful to
both the individual concerned and the society.
Egwuelu, (1995), takes technical education as a part of vocation designed to
prepare the leaner to enter an occupation requiring technical information and an
understanding of the laws of science and technology as applied to modem design
production. Technical education stresses the engineering aspect of vocational education
such as electronic, electrical, mechanical and automobile works. Indeed, it involves the
understanding and practical application of the basic principle of mathematics science. In
addition, technology has added hard work value to skills acquisition in vocational and
technical education. Technology, therefore, refers to the advantage of acquiring
disciplined habits, self-control and consciousness, high sense of responsibility including
the development of scientific attitude to thinking, behaving and manipulating new
machines for high productivity. It also refers to the ways which man has applied his
inventions and discoveries to satisfy his wants.

Ekpenyong (2001), while utilizing the definition of technology by the Technology

Study Committee of the University of Wisconsin, United States of America stated that
technology is the know-how and creative process that may utilize tools, resources and
systems to solve problems to enhance control natural and man-made environment to alter
human conditions.
Therefore; it has become imperative to given more attention to vocational and
technical education skills acquisition in Nigeria in order to make the teeming youths,
adults and women to be gainfully employed in the economy. It is against this background
that the skills become very relevant in Nigeria today where unemployment and poverty is
soaring by every successive year unchecked.
It is only a viable vocational technical educations kills acquisition that can solve
the problem.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The policy also outlined the following goals of vocational education as follows:
a) to provide the trained manpower in applied sciences, technology and business
Particularly at craft, advanced craft and technical levels.
b) To provide the technical knowledge and vocational skills necessary for
agricultural, commercial and economic development.
c) To give training and impart the necessary skills to individuals who shall be self-
reliant economically.
 CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 HOW TO MOVE NIGERIA FORWARD

Fellow Nigerians, let me start by saying nothing worries me more than the intractable
problems of our dearly beloved country. There are times I wish I could just mind my own
business but it seems I’m addicted to the issues and problems of Nigeria. Lately, I have
come up with different theories about why we are where we are. One of them is to go
superstitious and believe we are jinxed and we’ve been jazzed by some fiendish demons. Or
how does one explain the fact that no government has been able to find a practical and
workable solution to our incredible challenges.

My second theory is that we actually hate our country but just pretend to be patriotic which
is best seen in our words and not, of course, in our action. An average Nigerian spends a
large proportion of his time daily lamenting about Nigeria and regurgitating the same simple
facts and seeming solutions that would ultimately lead to no grand denouement because
nothing is done about them. We talk, talk and talk and that’s where it ends. If we truly love
our country as much as we claim, we should have arrived at our Eldorado by now given the
plethora of sometimes practical and workable solutions that we proffer.

My third theory is that we have a cultural problem that requires a cultural revolution. Our
culture turns a once simple human being to an unrecognisable monstrosity in little or no
time. One begins to wonder what suddenly caused the 360-degree transformation. Leaders
in Nigeria at all levels live and act like emperors. Even the most enlightened ones among us
behave like victims of hypnotism and accept whatever was in place before, and continue the
madness.

One of them is the over-ceremonial nature of governments. Every leader over-dresses, over-
militarises security, and over-spends on personal comfort and so on. I must commend the
simplicity of the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo as he seems to be able to buck
this trend and dress simply in Kaftan and suits as he has always done. Governor Olusegun
Mimiko is another leading politician who imbibes the simple culture.

The one I find most baffling is how many times Governors have to travel to Abuja,
Nigeria’s Federal character for all manner of meetings and ceremonies. States keep
properties at home (including guest houses, more like abattoirs) and then replicate the same
in Abuja and in Lagos.

The Federal Government has properties scattered everywhere in choice locations lying
fallow most times. Our Presidential fleet is competing with that of America and they must
be maintained by all means. So, how can we complain about under-development when
leaders are not ready to compromise on expensive lifestyles?

My fourth theory is that a society gets the type of leaders it deserves. We are largely docile
and accept our leaders’ excesses. If you complain too much, they would ask “is it only you
that know how to talk? I watched closely as Wole Soyinka, Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi,
Femi Falana, Balarabe Musa, and others struggled so much for a thankless nation. They
were regularly harassed by government and frequently abused by the same people they were
trying to protect. Their families suffered in silence without any of us asking how they fared.
And as popular as they were, none except Balarabe Musa could win major elections. Gani
Fawehinmi was a Presidential candidate and he lost resoundingly. Femi Falana tried to be
the Governor of Ekiti State but it was an impossible mission. Our society moves on
regardless of what happens to these social and welfarist gladiators.

Where then do we go from here? There are no easy solutions to these problems. None
springs out as being the most practical and necessary. My suggestion however, is that we
must start from somewhere. We cannot just resign ourselves to fate and do nothing.

I have received some impetus lately from my experience in Ghana. Anyone following me on
social media would have noticed my romance with the old Gold Coast. The country has
demonstrated that we can surmount our problems once we make up our minds to start the
journey. My advice is that we should never feel too big to learn from others, even from
those we feel are small to us. The story of Ghana should impress and not depress us.

I have had the privilege of watching President John Dramani Mahama build and transform
Ghana into a modern nation state. We, therefore, don’t have to travel far to borrow
examples. I know that in our usual bravado we may dismiss this innocuous call as arrant
nonsense but I wish to beg our leaders, in the name of all that is good, to treat this as a
clarion call. There is ample evidence that Ghana is working and there is no reason why
Nigeria cannot work. Ghana has fewer resources than Nigeria but it has managed to
properly harness and enhance these resources over the years. More recently, President
Mahama has taken up the gauntlet and done a lot to make Ghana a progressive, buoyant
economy with significant infrastructural development.

The first reality check is to accept that no leader can do it all. No leader has the monopoly of
wisdom and nobody should try to pin that on any of our leaders and seek to transform them
into what they are not. Once we understand that the President is not a magician or sorcerer,
we can begin to appreciate his limitations and not be overly expectant of miracles.
nonetheless, President Muhammadu Buhari can still do much more in the under two years
that he has left before he decides to seek re-election or not. His first task is to prioritise the
activities of his Government having substantially dealt with his primary agenda of fighting
corruption. I am sure that the President knows that the fight against corruption is just one of
the foundations upon which the monument of development and progress will be
based. Unfortunately, added to the traditional features of progressive development like the
economy, education, health, agriculture and social welfare, Nigeria has added security and
insecurity. All of these need to be given proper consideration and prioritised in order to
ensure that the elusive well-being of our people is achieved.

I will never get tired of reiterating this fact; Nigeria will never make substantial progress
until we upgrade our educational institutions. This is one area Ghana is doing very well.
Ghana today has about 60,000 educational institutions from primary to tertiary institutions. I
know that Nigeria has many more but it is in the quality and the detail that Ghana emerges
superior. Enrolment in the various levels of Ghanaian institutions is about ten million out of
a population of about 26 million. I am aware that Nigeria falls far short in this regard.

In 2013, close to 32 million exercise books were distributed by Government to nearly five
million pupils. About two million school uniforms have gone out to pupils since 2010. In
2013, 12.5 million Maths, English and Science text books were distributed to government
basic schools. An average pupil in Ghana has access to about four textbooks. Osun State has
taken a welcome lead by its controversial Tablet, called Opon Imo which features several
textbooks.
School feeding Programme is approaching about two million children. 60,000 laptops have
been given out to Basic School pupils while about 50,000 teachers received ICT training.
10,000 locally made sandals went to underprivileged pupils. Teacher Training institutions
now have well equipped science laboratories in order to improve the teaching of Science
and Maths. Massive library facilities have been undertaken even in rural areas. Technical
schools are thriving where artisans are trained for performance and efficiency.

Tertiary institutions are receiving special boosts. The University of Ghana has nearly
completed a 617-bed teaching hospital complex for the training of medical students and
nurses. Government is providing Distance Education ICT centres for all ten regions of
Ghana equipped with video conferencing and lecture auditoriums. Kwame Nkrumah
University of Technology in Kumasi has ultra-modern laboratories with latest gadgets such
as “high capacity nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, mass spectrometers and
analysers… petroleum engineering laboratories with drill simulators…” There is a new
Veterinary hospital equipped to be the most advanced in West Africa. Polytechnics are
being rebranded into Technical Universities. Just imagine how many billions of dollars
Nigeria would save on foreign education if we can improve the quality at home
drastically. Whilst it is laudable that the Nigerian Government is allowing entrepreneurs
and religious organisations to invest in education, Government cannot and must not abdicate
its responsibility to them. Government owes a duty to see the proper educational
advancement and development of its children. It must take the lead and show the way and
not wait for such private institutions to provide the foundation for our industrial
development. Happily, some of these institutions like the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin
which has an Engineering Faculty that has equipment capable of producing a fire engine and
race cars in the not too distant future have taken up the challenge.

Health they say is wealth. Nigeria would do extremely well if we can return to the days of
old when our medical facilities were world class. Ghana has set up an ambitious plan to
deliver 6,000 new hospital beds soon and some of the projects have advanced so much in
the past two years because about two billion dollars has been invested by the Mahama
government covering “two Teaching Hospital projects, three Institutional Hospitals, four
Regional Hospitals, 14 District Hospitals, dozens of polyclinics and scores of health
centres…” The beauty of it is that, the government is reaching out to many rural areas in the
distribution of facilities. Looking through the Ghana Green Book containing the endless
accounts of developmental projects garnished with crispy pictures one could see a country
fully and gloriously at work for the improvement of the lives of its people.

On the international and tourist front, the small but efficient Kotoka International Airport
Accra is being upgraded. The general ambience has improved with about 26 Immigration
cubicles equipped with cameras and finger-printing machines. There are new conveyor
belts, elevators, escalators, etc. The cargo section is heavenly. A new terminal is being
added because of the economic expansion and development that is attracting Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) to Ghana. All this has been achieved within a very short period. On the
contrary, our airports remain horrible. Where there is work in progress like the extensions at
at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja and Murtala Mohammed International
Airport, Lagos the work has been done at snail speed. This is not good enough for the giant
of Africa., Something must be done urgently to stop this disgrace. The airport is always the
first point of contact with most countries for visitors and investors. For whatever reasons,
our airports have remained our worst PR edifices as a nation.
2.2 PUSHING NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION FORWARD

It is a demonstration of your willingness to partner with the Federal Government in moving our great
country forward, in line with our policy on public private partnership in economic development. In
this regard, I call on other stakeholders to emulate this trend, in the hope of stimulating insights on
various issues that would engender the positive transformation of our economy. I look forward to a
return to the days when institutions such as this were at the forefront of meaningful intellectual
discourse on government policies and programmes and contributed to public debate on domestic and
international issues that impacted on the economy and country. This meeting also provides a unique
opportunity for investors to interact with Nigeria’s policy makers and other players in the Nigerian
environment to review the state of investment and private sector development in Nigeria, to establish
opportunities for match-making and to explore openings for increasing foreign investment flows into
Nigeria. As such, it is a timely context for enhancing understanding of the Nigerian investment,
albeit currently challenging, environment and of how investors can take advantage of the new
commercial avenues which are available and being generated by developments in Nigeria.

Interestingly, this is the first time since the inception of this conference, that our macroeconomic
landscape is not looking as positive and facing several severe challenges. The choice of the theme of
this conference “Unlocking Nigeria’s Potential…growing through diversification” is very apt and
timely, given the major challenges Nigeria is facing today that threatens to erode the gains that we
have achieved as a country in the past decade. Accordingly, today’s conference and its theme
provides a timely opportunity for operators, regulators, investors and stakeholders in general to re-
examine regulatory policies, business models, products, and risk strategies, at a time when financial
and economic players in Nigeria are going back to the drawing board on the strategies for economic
recovery. It also presents an excellent opportunity for operators and players to articulate a road map
for renewed investment in Nigeria in the wake of the uncertain and challenging environment that the
economic and financial operators in Nigeria are currently facing.

2.3 WHERE ARE WE AND HOW DID WE GET HERE?

In 2010, at the inception of this conference, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was at 7.98%
driven by a household consumption of N36.4 trillion rising to N63.5 trillion by 2014, and while
inflation averaged 13.7% during that year it dropped to about 8% a few years later. Exports on
Merchandise Trade was up 75%, year on year and portfolio and foreign direct investment stood at
US$5.9 bn in 2010 rising to over US$20bn a few years later. Crude prices averaged above $70 a
barrel rising to over US$100 and the exchange rate of the naira to the US dollar was relatively stable
at about N150 to the dollar.The NSE All share index at that time ranged from 22,784.92 to
27,766.02 points, rising to 42,949.65 points in 2014. This was a good time to be in Lagos and
Nigeria in General.

Seasonally adjusted yearly construction growth ranged from 9% to 16%. Real estate growth
averaged 6%. Retail and wholesale trade averaged 7% while hotels and restaurants or
accommodation and food services growth ranged between 9% and 74%.

Over the 2010 through the 2014 period, we were not doing too bad as a country, but then again, we
all know what has been happening since June 2014: oil prices fell 66.8% from $114/barrel recorded
in June 2014, to $38.0 by December 2015. Prices have fallen even further in 2016, to $31.4 as at
22nd February, 2016 as the world sees a global glut in oil supply and slowing demand especially in
emerging countries. While the price level itself is a problem, a bigger challenge lies with oil price
volatility. As a nation that relies so much on oil for its revenues, the implicit multiplier effects for
the entire economy, have been most staggering and pervasive. Although many would have noticed
the imbalances and strains that were beginning to appear in the economy stemming from the gradual
decline in the price of our country’s main foreign exchange earner, very few could have anticipated
the extent and severity of the economic and financial storm that has subsequently enveloped
markets. Despite the unprecedented number and scale of the policy intervention measures
introduced, systemic pressures have yet to fully abate. Confidence in the economy and the financial
markets in particular is yet to return fully. It would appear that we are entering into a period of
uncertainty in the context of changing economic and financial market paradigms. Economic growth
rates have slowed from a position where Nigeria was one of the fastest growing economies in the
world.The direct and indirect effects of declining crude oil prices, combined with other supply side
issues are of course the most important factors that have led to our economic growth slowing to
about 3% in 2015, the slowest growth since 1999. The NSE AI is now at 2010 levels of 23,171.07
points, about half what it was at its peak in 2014, as an increasing number of stocks are being
offered at fire-sale prices, trading at steep discounts to their book and fair values. This reflects a
combination of an overhang in the supply of assets, the prevailing economic outlook and an absence
of near-term purchasing power on account of tighter balance sheets. The credit liquidity crunch,
accompanied by higher levels of risk aversion, has created a situation where market corrections have
been extreme. As a result, capital markets are now undergoing very sharp declines in valuation.

Accordingly, foreign direct and portfolio investments have declined from a high of US$20.9bn in
2014 to about us$9.6bn in 2015. Yes, this is still higher than 2010 levels, but we have moved from a
growth of US$5 billion to US$ 20bn over 4 years to a drop from US$20bn to US$9 bn in just one
year. Let’s think about this for a second. At the same time inflation has been rising to near double
digits from a low of 7% few years ago. Exports are down 12%, while both the official and parallel
exchange rates are above 2010 levels. Manufacturing has slowed considerably and trade is now
growing at about 4%.

Construction is growing at about 6% from highs of 15.7%. Hotels and restaurants is growing at
about 4% from a high of 74% and previous low of 9.4%. In fact, hotels and restaurants has
slowed drastically in the last two quarters. Consequently, government revenue has declined
following declining oil prices, slower economic activity and hence lower corporate taxes,
declining consumption and hence lower value added taxes, exchange rates adjustments and
lower trade related tariff revenues, as well as slower portfolio and foreign direct investment
accretion.
2.4 WHAT ARE WE DIVERSIFYING: THE ECONOMY? EXPORTS?
GOVERNMENT REVENUE?

At this juncture, I will like to borrow from 15th century writer, Niccolo Machiavelli, who stated
that we should “never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis”. The prevailing economic
situation has prompted Nigeria to work harder to further diversify our economy as well as
government revenue. Yes, our economy is relatively diversified. However, almost half of the
economy is informal and out of the (fiscal) control of government. Policies aimed at drawing in
this huge informal sector into the system must necessarily be deployed at this time if we are to
diversify our sources of revenue and achieve a more sustainable structural transformation of our
economy.

Interestingly, this is not something new; this is what we have been clamoring for since 1970s
and 80s: to further diversify our economy and improve our revenue base towards unlocking
sustainable development. In fact, between 1988 and 2012, crude oil as a share of government
revenues has fluctuated between 70% and 80% during that period, often higher than 70% and in
some cases higher than 80%. Interestingly, the decline (or this most recent episode of a decline I
should say) started in 2011 when the crude oil share of government revenues declined to 80.95%
in 2011, to 75.88% in 2012, to 67.25% in 2013, and 67.12% in 2014. At the time, some mis-
interpreted the data by suggesting this reflected improvement in the diversification of
government revenue as the share of oil to revenue was declining. The truth was that revenue
from oil was declining due to a reduction in the price and quantity of oil produced. True (or a
more sustainable) diversification occurs when the share of oil revenue drops due to a significant
 rise in the value of non- oil revenue. But in this case non- oil revenue stayed more or less
constant but oil revenue dropped due to constraints in the sector but was erroneously touted as
an improvement in revenue diversification. In line with my professional responsibility as
statistician general I must digress here briefly and state my disappointment with the misuse of
statistics. Some misuse statistics because they are neither willing nor prepared to face the reality
and truth exposed by statistics. This is not a problem of statistics, however, but rather a problem
of the ill-motive of the users of statistics. Just as a knife can be utilized to save lives if it is used
by a surgeon, it could very well be a weapon in the hands of a criminal. Thus, statistics are
‘innocent’, and, hence do not deserve any wrong labelling. Blames must go instead, to the ones
who abuse or misuse it, particularly those who do so knowingly, selectively or deliberately.
Since around 2011, there have been renewed clamoring for economic and thus revenue
diversification, although policy makers have tended to sometimes turn a blind eye as revenues were
so high, but now, crude oil economy (revenues) have fallen and non-crude oil economy (revenues)
are not doing great either. This in turn is hampering government’s ability to provide essential public
services and thus hampering development.

2.5 GDP STRUCTURE AND TAX RECEIPTS

As we all know, GDP growth is not necessarily synonymous with development, as development is
multi-dimensional by nature and more intricate. GDP growth is necessary but not sufficient for
development [so you must grow to develop but growth doesn’t always guaranty development]. One
of the important links between growth and development is through taxes. It is expected that as GDP
or output grows companies pay higher taxes to government and it is that higher revenue from higher
growth that will be used to fund development projects. If, however, government cannot collect those
taxes because of a weak tax system or, like in the case of Nigeria the economy is largely informal
and outside the control of tax authorities, then the economy can only keep growing to a point, but
without the associated growth related tax revenue needed for development being collected. On the
other hand, if taxes from higher output can be collected but are not used to fund development
projects and is instead used to fund consumption, then again growth may not translate to
development. Growth may also not necessarily result in a corresponding rise in jobs. This depends
on the nature of that growth. If our economy is growing as a result of largely capital intensive or
technological intensive sectors like telecoms, then output can grow without creating jobs. The
question to policy makers is: do we focus on labor intensive sectors since we have a labor problem
and find ways of absorbing labor without sacrificing efficiency gains from technology deployment?
Or, do we continue to drive capital and technological intensive growth and hope it trickles down to
other labor intensive sectors, thereby stimulating employment.

As everyone here is well aware, the updating of national accounts after almost 2 decades by the NBS
shows a totally different economic structure both in size and structure. Nominal GDP is now revised
to N89.0trillion ($561.6 billion) in 2014. Again, I must emphasize that the intention was simply to
ensure our economic structure was as reflective of reality as possible and not for the purposes which
seems to have been the main discussion point, i.e. Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa. In
fact, as an interesting side note, it was as a means to give the government better statistics to work
with that we started the rebasing project. Nevertheless, as a result of the rebasing, we also observed
that our economy was more diversified than we thought and the structure of the economy has
changed significantly since the last exercise in the 1990s. You can imagine the consequences to the
economy if we continued basing our policies on a two decade and outdated economic structure. An
outdated structure that suggested telecommunications for example contributed less than 1% of GDP
since the turn of the century.

This leads me to a point I would like to make, which I alluded to earlier in passing, that we need to
stop describing the structure of the economy by source of government revenue. True, government
revenue is dependent on oil and gas sector but the economic structure of Nigeria is not solely
dependent on oil and gas albeit an important part. If you look at the recent revised national accounts,
it is evident that oil value added has been negative for years now, and in fact is it the non-oil
economy that had sustained the economy. This is not to say the oil sector doesn’t have indirect
impact on the non- oil economy.

Again, the revision of the National Account statistics shows that Nigeria’s economic structure has
changed since 1990 being less dependent on agriculture and more on services. Agriculture used to be
about 35% of GDP but is now 22%. Industry which included crude oil and gas production used to be
36% of GDP but is now 25% while services that used to be 39% of GDP is now over 50%. This
however reveals a disconnect in development theory. Countries are meant to transform from
agriculture to industry then services, and each stage of this transition usually takes some time.
However, we seemed to take an alternate path from the agricultural stage and, without really
developing the industrial base, gone straight to services, and now we are going back to industry and
manufacturing in particular. What happened? The growing demand for services under normal
development theory should have been fulfilled by manufacturing which should have grown
alongside the services. But due to constraints to manufacturing, services was supported by imports.
So we want TVs and furniture or cars and, rather than support our local industry to produce to meet
this demand, instead we import. Hotels provide accommodation services but most of the furniture in
the hotel are imported. So it provides the service to Nigerians, increasing our services GDP but not
manufacturing. Our telecoms sector provides one of the biggest telecommunication services in the
world but manufacturing of telecommunication equipment that drives that service is relatively non-
existent. So we use phones to enjoy telecoms services but the phones and iPads are not produced
here. As such, our large consumption of services supports manufacturing in other countries. The
question to ask here is: do we ban goods we can’t produce efficiently here or encourage companies
that produce those commodities we enjoy [from importation] to set up here by introducing attractive
policies?

2.6 PUSHING FORWARD WITH DIVERSIFICATION

Let us briefly compare our GDP which shows the structure of the economy with current tax receipts.
Analysis shows that the largest contributors to GDP as well as many of the fastest growing sectors
currently contribute the least to government revenue with respect to taxes. They are also the sectors
that are mostly informal eg agriculture, trade, real estate three of the top 5 are largely informal in
nature and contribute together almost half of GDP. In 2013, Agriculture collected the lowest VAT
relative to its economic contribution, contributing 0.11% to total VAT, yet 18.45% to GDP. This is
likely due to the high incidence of subsistence farming, the informal nature of which makes it more
difficult to tax, but there is room for growth around those areas: agric, trading, textile and garment,
real estate, building and construction. The same thing applies to other big contributors to GDP such
as trading, some aspects of light manufacturing, real estate etc. At the same time, the greatest
contributor to tax relative to GDP share is Professional, scientific and technical Services (which are
very formal in nature- these are the accountants, auditors, consultants, lawyers etc), with 13.69% of
total VAT, but contributing just 3.69% of total GDP. This is because professional services will be
registered and keep accounts, which makes it easy for tax collection. On the other hand, Hotel and
Catering, Mining, publishing, automobile assembly and pharmaceutical production are taxed almost
equally to their contributions to GDP (again these tend to be very formal in nature). However, they
contribute very little to GDP even though they seem to be taxed adequately. Hotels and restaurants
for eg, contributes 0.90% of VAT and represents 0.81% of GDP. A report published in 2012 found
out that over 25% of incorporated businesses in Nigeria via the Corporate Affairs Commission were
not tax payers. Also, over 40% of the active tax payers hadn’t filed returns in 2 years! So we can
definitely do better by simply broadening the tax base and collecting arrears. Thus, there is definitely
some room to find resources to improve government revenue and thus critical services that we need
to provide to the public. Economic activity valued at over N80trillion should not generate non- oil
government revenue of barely N3 trillion. Diversification of government revenue therefore starts or
should start with ensuring current economic activity, both formal and informal, are taxed
appropriately. We can thereafter introduce policies to deepen the currently existing economic
diversification without which it will be difficult to unlock sustainable growth and development.
2.7 BENEFITS OF DIVERSIFICATION

The benefits of improved diversification are clear. Firstly, we are all aware of Nigeria’s vast
potential despite current challenges. Nigeria ranks among the most richly endowed nations of the
world in terms of natural, mineral and human resources. Nigeria has a variety of both renewable and
non-renewable resources, some of which have not yet been effectively tapped. Solar energy,
probably the most extensive of the underutilized renewable resources, is likely to remain untapped
for some time, and the vast reserves of natural gas produced with crude oil have yet to be fully
utilized. With a highly entrepreneurial, hard-working, largely youthful population of over 170
million people, over 32 million Micro Small Medium Enterprises and a labor force of about 76mn,
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and its largest market and economy with a household
consumption expenditure of over N63 trillion in 2014. Nigeria also contributes over 70 percent of
the West African sub-regions’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nigeria is favourably-positioned
geographically and not susceptible to the natural disasters many other countries are prone to. We are
rich in intellectual capacity, with many Nigerians at home and abroad distinguishing themselves
among the best in the world, in various areas of endeavor. Furthermore, Nigeria is abundant in
natural resources. The country is the 8th largest producer of petroleum, with oil reserves estimated at
about 36 billion barrels. Nigeria also has the 6th largest deposits of gas with our natural gas reserves
estimated at a minimum of 100 trillion cubic feet. Nigeria has over 34 discovered solid minerals,
including significant uranium deposits, abundant arable land and over 44 exportable commodities.
With such an abundance in human and natural resources, Nigeria really should be one of the most
diversified and competitive countries in the world. However, as aforementioned, Nigeria has
historically been heavily dependent on a narrow range of traditional primary products and relatively
few export markets for the bulk of its export earnings. Diversification in exports and in domestic
production will accordingly be conducive to faster economic growth.

Increased diversification is also associated with lower output volatility and greater macroeconomic
stability. There is therefore both a growth payoff and a stability payoff to diversification,
underscoring the case for paying close attention to policies that facilitate diversification and
structural transformation. Cross-country empirical evidence points to a range of general policy and
reform measures that have proven effective in promoting diversification and structural
transformation. These include: improving infrastructure and trade networks, investing in human
capital, encouraging financial deepening, and reducing barriers to entry for new products. The
experiences of the SouthEast Asian countries, some of them with similar economic characteristics as
Nigeria, are instructive in this regard. Faced with problems of economic stagnation, high
unemployment rate, runaway inflation and persistent external sector imbalances, the thrust of
development policies in those countries shifted in favour of the diversification of the productive base
and broadening of the export base of the economy through massive investment in physical and
human capital. The successful implementation of those policies resulted in enhanced productivity
growth, increase in the share of manufacturing in total export earnings and drastic reduction in the
vulnerability of those economies to external shocks as we are facing in Nigeria today. The
experiences of the Asian Tigers also demonstrated that the development of Small and Medium Scale
Enterprises provides a veritable channel for tapping these potentials.

With over 32 million MSMEs the opportunities are tremendous. I must stress, however, thatthere is
no one-size-fits-all recipe, as evidenced by the diverse case studies of other countries that have
followed different paths to increased economic growth through diversification. Perhaps, I should
also mention that there is a lot of merit in the observation that unlocking rapid and sustained growth
is a function of technological and infrastructural improvement. Yet, it seems that not enough
attention has been paid to the maintenance, acquisition, adaptation and utilization of existing
technology and infrastructure in Nigeria over the years which has contributed to making our growth
and development so fragile. This cuts across the agricultural, industrial and service sectors. To
enhance the competitiveness of the non-oil sector which has driven growth recently and the growth
of MSMEs, there is need for increased collaboration among all stakeholders, including the
government, the operators in the sector, the universities and research institutes. This will not only
stimulate innovation but also improve the quality of the products. This is why I am always excited
by conferences like this one initiated by Stanbic IBTC Bank.
Notwithstanding all the macroeconomic and global economic turmoil, you are all here today because
you all believe in one way or the other, that the opportunities for profits in Nigeria are substantial
despite the risks involved. You are the few who, regardless of how things may seem, are here
because you believe the opportunities that the economy possesses. The past year have been
particularly challenging for Nigeria in terms of its attempts to attract investment. But with the
current situation, lessons are being learnt and we are being forced to undertake essential reforms to
create a friendlier business environment, to make them conducive, and more attractive to foreign
investors. This can only lead to new openings waiting for those who are prepared to think creatively,
strategically and for the long-term.

As the theme of this year’s conference is “Unlocking Nigeria’s potential…growth through

diversification”, I decided to conclude my address by sharing a few anecdotes, backed by numbers
of course, on how you all could benefit from diversification. Before I go into that, I will let you all in
on a little secret. People who operate in Nigeria will tell you that it is a challenging environment, and
while it is true, for those who are able to handle it, they don’t mention the returns are often high
enough to justify the challenges and that they ususally come out doing very well. For instance, we
know now according to the Petroleum Minister that we can actually make profits at $20/barrel in
some instances. Think about how much profits oil companies were making when oil was
$114/barrel. But if you spoke to some of them, the only thing they will tell you is how challenging
the environment is. So the key is you just have to be able to persevere.

Now, as we are all aware, oil prices are in the doldrums, so we need to look for alternative sources
of revenue, which leads me to my tid-bits and the key phrase is Value Addition (like your GDP
being value added). Now, given the current economic environment, everyone is looking for
alternative sources of funding. How many here know that you could actually get strawberries grown
in some parts of Nigeria? A young entrepreneur I met recently started selling some fruit. She sells
everything from Broccoli, Strawberries, Avocadoes, Pineapples, and other fruits and vegetables. So,
I asked the lady to give me a kilogram of Strawberries (organic, grown by peasant farmers in Jos)
and the price was N2,000 per kilogram! Now if you do the conversion (to lbs and then to dollars), it
comes out to be $2.59/lb. Now, this is after the strawberries have been harvested, washed, processed
and transported to reach my doorstep by someone who is in essence a retail trader who needs to find
alternative income and who has also included her trading margin! Now, I asked myself, if I wanted
strawberries at my doorstep, how much would it cost me? So, I got on line, and visited Fresh Direct
(An American company specializing in the delivery of groceries to individuals); If I were in the U.S.
in say New York, Driscoll's Strawberries cost $4.49/lb. So think about the margins possible with a
more efficient harvesting and distribution of the product. Also, think about how your groceries are
delivered via Fresh Direct; they come to your doorstep in a well refrigerated van, thus ensuring that
the products are fresh till you get them. In one instance when I ordered two pounds of strawberries
from the young lady at the office, by the time I got home, half of the product which she had sold me
was already getting spoiled. Thus for people engaged in produce, you could actually source your
products here, and sell them abroad not to mention the business opportunity in introducing storage
facilities. Someone once said the fastest and most sustainable businesses find out what is needed in
an economy and supply it. Just ask MTN [well, before the fine that is]. If you are into these Fast
Moving Consumer Commodities you could make various juices, storage facilities that preserve them
and so on with great fruit here with output of various crops at almost 250 million metric tons as of
2014 (the 2015 nos will be out when we when we conclude our 2015 GDP work in a few weeks).

As a former head of research at Stanbic IBTC Bank and now as Nigeria’s Statistician General, I
appreciate how important data such as this is to you all here and that is why whenever we can, we
push very hard despite inadequate funding to get whatever data we can get out there as soon as
possible. Some interesting information we published recently via the collaboration with the Federal
Road Safety Commission are the number of registered Drivers Licenses by State as well as the
number of vehicles registered in the country by state over the 2013 through 2015 period. In 2013,
there were 1.3 million motor vehicles and motorcycles registered and 400 thousand driver’s licenses
issued. That is a ratio of 3 vehicles to each new licensed holder! In 2014, perhaps as the economic
situation began to tighten, there were 980 thousand vehicles and motorcycles registered to 653
thousand licenses, a ratio of about 1.5 to 1. In 2015, the ratio declined to 0.5. Now it shows, as the
economy gets better, people are likely to buy more cars! And if you think a little harder, cars need
tires and a whole lot of other parts and as the wear and tear becomes more on the cars, you need to
do a road worthy test annually and so on. So over the 2013 to 2015 period, there were 2.8 million
registered vehicles and motorcycles, let alone previous vehicles that were on the roads before and
their associated needs. Thus, the market is here and the consumption is massive. Where I think we
need some help is scaling up to be able to provide more to the Nigeria customer. This is where I
think you as investors can come in. About a year or so ago, we tried to look at financial
intermediation via the Nigerian Stock

Exchange, to see how well the NSE was helping companies access capital markets, and its
contribution to the Nigerian economy and we had some interesting findings. Of 1116 firms operating
in agriculture, that we had on our establishment roster at NBS, in Agriculture, only 6 firms listed on
the NSE could have been classified as agricultural producing firms and the share of Agriculture to
the GDP was 22% in 2013. In wholesale and retail trade, we have 502,085 firms on our roster, but
only 1 listed on the NSE and it contributed 17% to Nominal GDP. Similarly, in Manufacturing,
despite the challenging environment, we had 76,656 firms in our roster, but only 67 firms on the
NSE, and so on. So the capital market does not adequately mirror the Nigerian economy.
 CHAPTER THREE

3.0 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

3.3 SOURCE/ METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

3.4 POPULATION AND SAMPLE SIZE

3.5 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

3.6 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF MEASURING INSTRUMENT

3.7 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

 CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

4.2 PRESENTATION OF DATA

4.3 ANALYSIS OF DATA

4.4 INTERPRETATION OF RESULT

 CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 CONCLUSION
From what has been discussed so far, it is therefore, obvious that there is need for vocational
and technical education to give the right skills with competencies for our teeming youths, adults and
women in order to gain self-employment after graduation as a way of moving Nigeria forward. This
is the only viable way available to the nation to eliminate unemployment and poverty. Let me
reiterate my delight at this gathering as these are the kind of initiatives that we need in this country to
move things forward. Like I stated earlier, you are the few who dare to consider investing in this
challenging but high returns environment.. Let me encourage you all not to be dismayed by all the
noise of what is going on. Instead, I will urge you to persevere because the opportunities are there.
You just have to do some more research, get creative and more importantly, be daring because as
they say; no risk no reward. As you proceed into this dialogue session, I wish everyone present a
successful conference, and I hope your discussions and recommendations would be the catalyst for
deepened diversification, rapid investments and sustainable growth and development in the country.
Thank you very much for you time and I wish you the best of deliberations. This will in turn
contribute meaningfully towards national self-reliance that is badly needed today in Nigeria.

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
In order to move Nigeria forward through vocational and technical education and
economic diversification, the following recommendations are made;
1 Nigeria should vigorously address their leadership problems. Her leaders are very selfish, self-
centred and individualistic and their main aim of seeking elective or power of is to fulfill self-
aggrandizement at the expense of the masses. They do not possess the power or strengths to
serve the nation and humanity as compared to that Mao Tse Tung of China, president Franklin
Delan Rooosevelt of USA, Winston Churchill of Britain etc. who turned around their poor and
unemployed masses to viable self-employed ones through personal accountability in
governance. What has come out of Nigerian Leader is perpetual enslavement of the masses
through massive corruption.
2 Adequate and purposeful funding of vocational and technical education system be undertaken
in order to encourage the purchase of the right tools, equipment or machines for effective
teaching and learning. In addition to his, companies or industries that make use of vocational
and technical education beneficiaries should be levied to support it. Through this way,
abundant purchase of equipment will be achieved. They would stimulate students 1 interests to
learn the skills.
3 Nigerians should imbibe the culture of hard-work, honesty, reliability and accountability in
governance and discard the culture of corruption. No nation excels through massive corruption
in the world except through hard-work and purposeful leadership and followership.
4 Nigeria leaders should soivc once and for all, the problem of erratic power/electricity supply.
When this is in place, self-employment of artisans, technicians, small-scale businesses, etc.,
would flourish massively. Unemployment and poverty would be gradually eradicated. This
can only take place when (here is constant electric power supply as (he conductor of the
enabling environment.5 all tiers of government, stakeholders and the citizens should sec
vocational and technical education programme as a child of necessity. Everyone should
support the growth because it is the only way that can serve as a bridge-head through which
Nigeria can move forward to solve the problems of poverty and unemployment. Other nations
have done it through empowerment of vocational and technical education.
5 Nigeria should also diversify their economic with other product that are in our society
apart from oil.
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