JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA argues that job prospects are good in every area of the economy
I organized a big event last year that exposed me to an unusual number of rejections. Even some close friends had no choice but to say no. I understood everyone, the economy was biting so hard, even a clinically deluded person would have recovered enough to know what the weather was saying. The rational thing was to postpone execution, but I was adamant. Execution is my forte. My thinking was that not starting was going to cost more than whatever it took to start. That same event has found raising money a lot easier this year. From the perspective of this experience alone, I can say without a doubt that things are improving. And this is not my only data point. That said, we have a long way to go and creating jobs is an inescapable part of that journey.
How do we create new jobs? What economic sectors offer prospects for mass job creation? Where are the new opportunities? What are we doing wrong today? What can we do better? The answers are less about slogans and more about execution. Jobs grow when countries lower the cost of doing business, raise the reliability of basic services, and match skills with demand. If Nigeria treats jobs as a national mission with quarterly milestones, the flywheel can start to turn. Are we even taking measurements?
Agriculture offers a massive opportunity. The fastest path to mass employment here is to deepen value chains. Move from farming alone to a system that includes inputs, irrigation, storage, processing, packaging, and distribution. Fund rural roads and small bridges. Co-finance cold rooms and warehouses. I watched Chief Adeoluwa Adeshola, the accomplished agropreneur, make some of these points in a recent interview. Promote contract farming so processors can guarantee supply, and farmers can lock in prices. Build mechanisation hubs that rent small equipment to cooperatives. Every tonne saved from spoilage protects incomes and preserves jobs.
My foray into construction and housing shows that there are opportunities here too. Can we launch an affordable housing programme with standardised designs, local materials, and off take guarantees? The Renewed Hope Housing Project is a good start but more needs to be done on that front. We can begin to tie projects to apprenticeship schemes for masons, carpenters, electricians, and site managers. We don’t have enough of these skills in Nigeria, ridiculous as that sounds. Prioritise feeder roads, urban transit, and water works. Construction absorbs large numbers of medium skill workers and creates steady orders for local suppliers.
Energy and clean tech. Reliable power multiplies employment across sectors. Upgrade transmission, enable commercial mini grids, and simplify permits for commercial solar. Create national training for solar installers and appliance technicians. Cleaner cooking fuels open new distribution and after sales roles, especially for women led enterprises. Each additional megawatt creates design, finance, installation, and maintenance jobs.
Light manufacturing and assembly are big prospects. We can focus on cluster-based competitiveness rather than isolated factories. Time to develop serviced parks near ports and major markets with reliable power, water, security, and testing labs. We then set predictable tariffs that allow input imports while encouraging local value addition.
We can expand export readiness through standards, packaging, and logistics partnerships. When one anchor arrives, suppliers follow, and jobs compound. Digital services and the creative economy is another opportunity. Business process outsourcing, online customer support, cloud operations, and game or animation studios can employ thousands if connectivity is affordable and power stable. Set up digital work hubs in each state with subsidised broadband and reliable electricity. Link hubs to global talent platforms. Pair software training with paid gigs so learning converts to income. Grow Nollywood and Afrobeats through production finance, rights management, and skilled postproduction roles.
What about logistics and trade facilitation? Every hour saved from farm or factory to market lowers costs and funds new hiring. Modernise ports, digitise customs, and enforce single window clearance as the government appears to be pursuing. Encourage competition in trucking and rail freight. Build dry ports and regional distribution centres. Streamlined trade is a jobs policy.
Health and education services offer a lot of prospects for job creation too. We can empower community health workers, upgrade primary care, and localise basic medical supply chains. That Red Letter from the Minister of Health? Let’s put words to action. In education, scale teacher training, tutoring, and edtech for foundational literacy and numeracy. These sectors hire directly and raise human capital for every other sector. Platforms like Krystal Digital, led my Temitope Ogunsemo, have led the way here.
Effort is split across too many agencies with shifting rules and overlapping mandates. Multiple taxes and informal levies choke small firms and discourage hiring, so the new tax regime couldn’t have come sooner. Power is better but it remains unstable, and backup energy is costly, which erodes margins.
It is time to stabilise the basics. Macroeconomic stability is a jobs plan. Continue to tame inflation, do not derail the foreign exchange strategy. It is time to build skills that match demand. The government’s commitment to vocational education by offering stipends to students is a welcome incentive. We must now equip technical colleges with modern tools. Tie training to verified job slots, not generic certificates.
You can’t effectively grow what you don’t measure. We should measure and publish regular job reports. Create a quarterly jobs dashboard that reports net new formal jobs, enterprise registrations, apprenticeships, export volumes, power connections, and permit times. Keep the public engaged.
Nigeria has the people, market, and resilience. What we need is discipline around a short list of actions and the patience to stick with them. Choose engines that hire widely. Lower the cost of basics. Make rules simple. Finance what already works. Train for real jobs. Protect the roads, the ports, and the grid. Invite the diaspora to co-invest under clear rules. Then keep score in public. Jobs are the difference between dignity and despair. Treat them as the first test of policy. If Nigeria must consolidate, this economy must create and keep track of jobs.
Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing
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