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Emmanuel Nnadozie, director, microeconomic policy division, Economic Commission for Africa, wants Nigeria to create jobs for its teeming youths through agriculture and industrialization

|  By Vincent Nzemeke  |  Aug. 5, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

FOR Nigeria and other resource-rich African countries to industrialize, diversify and improve their economies, then they must take advantage of the current favourable world prices of commodities. This counsel came from Emmanuel Nnadozie, Director, Macroeconomic Policy Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA. He was speaking at this year’s launch of the Economic Report on Africa in Abuja recently.

At the event which was attended by policy makers, economists and members of the public, Nnadozie said massive industrialization will take place if Africa’s commodity producers grow their economies and create jobs for the millions of unemployed youths. Noting that this year’s report centered on youth unemployment, the professor advised employers of labour in Africa to take advantage of the large population of unemployed youths to drive industrialization. “The unemployment problem on the continent should be turned to a “demographic dividend” through massive industrialization that will effectively link the commodities with the rest of the economy.”

Nnadozie also pointed out that Nigeria has the capacity to add value to its crude oil and agricultural commodities such as cocoa, palm produce, cotton, rubber and groundnuts rather than just exporting them in their raw state, a situation he described as “exporting jobs”. He said Nigeria has the capacity to process its crude oil and cocoa into products that could be exported to the benefit of its economy and people if industrialization is encouraged.

Akpan Ekpo, director general of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management who also spoke at the event, extolled UNECA for always producing the annual report. He called on African countries to ensure the implementation of its recommendations to move the continent out of its current socio-economic condition.

On his part, Frank Nweke Jnr., chief executive officer of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, hinged the problem of poor implementation on the quality of leadership in the continent. In his view, the report should be of great interest to Africa’s heads of state, ministers of finance and planning and central bank governors for it to become effective in influencing Africa’s economic development.

Josephine Washima, special assistant to the Nigerian president on job creation commended UNECA for the insightful report. She also expressed President Goodluck Jonathan’s resolve to create jobs for the teeming youths through government’s programme aimed at transforming the key sectors of the economy such as agriculture, manufacturing as well as oil and gas.

This year’s edition of the UNECA report focused on making the most of Africa’s commodities. The report noted that Nigeria recorded mixed blessings in its efforts to add value to its oil and gas. The business which accounted for about 97 percent of Nigeria’s exports between 1980 and 2000, continues to be dominated by foreign multinational companies. The report also noted that agricultural commodities which were the mainstay of the economy in the 1970s were neglected as crude oil became the chief commodity.

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