TALENT DEVELOPMENT AND JOB CREATION IN THE 21st CENTURY THROUGH THE ONDO ADVANTAGE:
I have always been an avid admirer of American Politics and was especially fascinated by the election of Bill Clinton into the Whitehouse on the simple slogan 'It's the economy, Stupid'; an age which led to an unprecedented growth within the economy. Many will argue on the strength of Bill Clinton's character and other scandals but that would be behind the point which remains that the economy of a nation is paramount in seeing the people prosper and flourish.
In view of my keen focus on Ondo state, an oil producing states in Nigeria, with an estimated population of 3.5 million, out of which according to some estimates, has a teeming youth population of around 60 percent, I believe Ondo State's young population is under-utilised. Given our geographical location, Ondo State is the hub of trade between Lagos and the south east/south-south on the one hand, and between the south west and the north on the other hand, an enormous opportunity if maximised, should not leave any Ondo state youth jobless.
Many would argue about major programs before now that has attempted to tackle the problem, unfortunately, many of those ideas are not rooted in current global realities and trends. I have often told people who cared to listen that this particular century called the 21st Century is a robotic century, elevating the role of technology above humans as the means of production.
The forces of Automation and Technology is leaving quite a lot of people without jobs and reducing significantly the number of people required to do some jobs. I read about JD a rival Alibaba in China, who runs an entire warehouse with nothing but robots. As the current Coronavirus pandemic has shown, many companies that have adopted the 'Work from Home' strategy will likely see the economic incentives and completely re-evaluate their payroll, by adopting robotic systems, which will lead to massive job cuts.
Given these realities, I have often posited that the age of government creating productive work is almost over. Some governments in the other parts of the world have started what Henry Hazlitt the economist called 'Make Work' schemes, a work creation initiative which provides temporary reprieve, but does not create challenges in the future, as the jobs are not creating enough value to sustain them. This often lead to the inability of Government to pay salaries, which increases Fiscal burdens.
The challenge then is simple, how do we engage the abundant and resourceful youths of our State? Like the Biblical Maxim, when the foundation is faulty what can the righteous do? The first challenge is to reorientate the education system within the State to focus on the trends that will see the young people of Ondo State pocess value that will be appealing enough for investors. From my experience in the private sector, talent is a major factor in choosing where to invest, given that the significant cost of most investors is training. Hence, we need to re-evaluate our talent development system to fit with Global realities.
This would result to a complete focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Agriculture (STEMA), as critical fields that are relevant to the current global realities. Part of our plan when we're given the opportunity to govern the State is to ensure that indigenes in this sectors will be given incentives that will drive investment interest.
One of the major factors that aided China's industrialisation is the large number of literate youths. What this teaches us is the need to focus on strategies that will encourage our young population to attain such education height. Given the current tertiary education fee structure, a significant number of our youths are denied the opportunity to earn a degree. Hence our adoption of a model that will tie their degree and employment to a profitable system.
As an offshoot of this, Ondo State will be projected as the Technology Outsourcing Capital of Nigeria and a local Technology cluster will organically grow since there will be an abundance of talent available. The overall goal is to have a state in which many of her young people are ready for the future of work, this will be achieved through methods mentioned earlier and other created schemes through the State owned tertiary fee structure.
A lot has been said about entrepreneurship as a panacea to youth unemployment but not a lot has been said about creating a market for the products that will be created by this youths, which often leads to mass migration of some of our promising businesses to urban centres. This requires that we must create a way for the enterprising youths to have access to a ready markets, as they continue to grow, which will automatically create a domino effect where they in turn employ other people. As our markets continue to grow, we can then increase our revenues through the growth of these new businesses.
Ondo state by virtue of her geography has always been a prime location for industries to locate their factories. While Ondo State was once a no slacker in Industrialisation, sadly that memory belongs to a distant past. It is now necessary to revive these old industries and attract new ones through creative schemes and incentive that will see several of them become job generators. With a proper market for their products, it will make it easier not to go out of business. According to research, A large Factory or warehouse supports over thirty businesses and this businesses will in turn create jobs for our young people.
The challenge of creating Jobs in this age is numerous but with changed perspective, the right kind of thinking, competent leadership and leveraging the unique advantages of Ondo State, this woukd be a walk in the park.
Together, we can make it happen!
From the desk of Prince Dapo Adelegan
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