₦airaland Forum

oneolajire:
Entrepreneurship In Nigeria Is A Scam And A Multiplier Of Poverty


Nigeria is a country where all big investors have no inventions (tangible or intangible) to their credit. Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Michael Dell, Thomas Edison and the likes all have products to patent, but most entrepreneurs we have in Nigeria have invented nothing and have made it through dubious means. 

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of telling the youth and graduates that she (the government) lacks industrialisation and job creation strategies while the youth have been left to fate.

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of making the youth/graduates look intellectually lazy and burdensome as well as telling them that they are have been abandoned in the valley of unemployment. Unemployment rate increased simply because government owned industries and companies get strangulated by the python of corruption as well as the refusal of the government to establish new ones.

Entrepreneurship in advanced countries is about innovations, inventions, improvements, expansions, people and institutional empowerment. Modern and sophisticated skills are being utilised to manufacture goods and services which culminates into abundant job creation.

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is of the graduate job seeker told to engage in bead making, soap making, hair dressing, laundry and so on. These businesses have neither inventions nor advancement to add to the business practice and the economy, as they also have little or no impact on the international market. 

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is also of the rich that colludes with the government to defraud the masses, destroy public corporations and infrastructures in order for them to import alternative goods. The rich set up few enterprises and often pay peanuts to their employees in order to increase their wealth; culminating into increase in poverty level and underemployment in the country.  

The government of advanced countries often invest billion of dollars on education and research, so they always have intellectuals who will offer innovative products and services to the world. These products and services are initially developed into small scale businesses as they many even grow into large enterprises. While Nigeria keeps wasting hard earned funds on Small and Medium Scale (SME) development, yet the businesses are nowhere to be found.

Only an insane person will keep doing the same thing the same way and expect a different result. Am yet to see a nation that got developed by investing so little on the education of her youth and students but spend so much on SME propaganda. Still searching for a nation that gave nothing more than mere, non-professional, common, stark and non-sophisticated skills/training to her youth and achieved rapid industrial development.

Why should we buy a trailer engine, fix it in a car and try to make it compete with an aircraft? Why should we make people earn mere skills and expect them to compete with foreign sophisticated technologies? We have to know that the issue of local production of goods and services is a serious competetion with the developed nations.

Some questions for the proponents of entrepreneurship/vocational education.
 When will out textile, fashion and leather industry be able to make products of international standard? When will a Nigerian mechanic be able to manufacture car engines and other motor parts? When will our furniture makers be able to make furniture that will compete with ones made overseas? When will a computer repairer be able to produce motherboards, memorycards, monitors, just to mention a few?

Did America achieved greatness by emphasising on vocational trainings on how to make shoe polish, bake cake, produce detergents, event decorations , frying akara and establishment of football viewing centres? Did Britain get it right by teaching her youth how to start a beer palour and salon businesses or by ensuring technological dynamism? I wondered if it is mere phone repair training was what brought China among world's  mobile phone producers. Over and over again, I see entrepreneurship and vocational education as a scam.

Take a look at the furniture industry in Nigeria, you'll discover it is almost dead because foreign furniture has flooded the Nigerian market. Foreign furniture makers have been able to introduce much variety of products with various designs, even at exorbitant prices, yet people still buy them. Imported furniture  attains this much because modern machines are regularly produced to make new designs of furniture, but here in Nigeria, we only buy simple tools, we don't engage in design and manufacture of  machines/tools to be used in the furniture industry, so we are perpetually making furniture that cannot compete with the foreign ones. It is only engineering that provides modern machines, stack entrepreneurship cannot.

Entrepreneurship and and vocational education has never helped Nigeria in the manufacture of modern machines for production of finished goods that can compete favourably with imported ones. The best entrepreneurship has offered us is to use social media means to engage in selling of imported products as well as setting up of few businesses with the use of foreign machines. It is appaling for government to still keep preaching the sermon that can never bring solutions to us.

Every sector of the Nigerian economy has been badly affected by the erroneous policy of entrepreneurship and vocational education. From the agricultural sector to the transportation sector, from manufacturing to education, from construction to entertainment, name it, we have rendered our nation incapacitated when it comes to production of goods and services. There can never be abundant job opportunities as long as we keep executing this lame practice. 

I wonder why we have not given so much vocational training to professional operating as doctors, nurses and pharmacist in the medical field. We give this set of people trainings that can make them compete favourably with their foreign counterpart. I believe it should appear proper to the government to substitute entrepreneurship and vocational education with the training they receive in the teaching hospitals.  The government (after emptying the laboratories and workshops of polytechniques and universities) substituted requisite training for our engineers and scientist with entrepreneurship and vocational training, so they are rendered handicapped when it comes to provision of modern goods and services as well as job creation.

It is high time we changed our job creation policy of entrepreneurship and vocational studies to provision of qualitative education at all levels, especially science and technology education so that Nigerian graduates would possess requisite modern and sophisticated skills for our nation and the world market at large. It is only qualitative education and intensive research that can initiate intellectual thinking for creation of innovative goods and services.
 
Entrepreneurship and vocational studies have been found to have contributed immensely only to economy of nations with massive investments in education and research. Singapore and South Korea are the examples of nations that have eradicated illiteracy and have invested huge funds into science and technology education, so entrepreneurship thrives there.

Let the laboratories and workshops of our secondary schools and higher institutions be adequately equipped with modern and facilities so as to provide avenues for learning practicals. We need to replicate the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who utilised the qualitative education they obtained in the tetiary institutions to create worldwide business ventures in their fields.

Real entrepreneurship is when Nigerian graduates of electrical engineers can produce transformers, power generation turbines, alternators, televisions from local technologies. Metallurgical engineers must be able to produce steel for oil and gas pipelines as well as in train and car manufacturing. Combustion engines, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic parts must be what our mechanical engineers must be able to manufacture from their companies. Businesses of agricultural science graduates should able to feed the nation cos they should empowered to do so. This is what is called real entrepreneurship.

Businesses that leads to industrialisation are offshoots of science and technological discoveries and investments. The kind of entrepreneurship Nigeria needs is one in which Nigerian chemical engineers can set up refineries and petrochemical companies with the aid local resources. I would also love to see mobile phones, computers and other information technology gadgets developed and commercialised by Nigerian graduates of computer science. 

The entrepreneurship that Nigeria needs is one in which local engineering enterprises will be able to metamorphous  into multinationals like General Electric, Ford Motors, Chevron, Microsoft Corporations,Tata Steel and the likes. This is how we can solve the problem of unemployment as well as put an end to the massive importation of good in Nigeria. However, with this, Nigeria will become industrialised and be listed among the developed nations of the world.

oneolajire2000@yahoo.co.uk

400billionman:
You mentioned Bill Gates and Michael Dell. I mention Innoson and Dangote. You have listed the problems what are the solutions? Since according to you Nigerian youths should ignore vocational education. The problem is already on ground. Profer the solutions

Xda59:
It can never ever be saturated because besides fashion designing, interior decorating and catering (which must be the reason why you think the market is already getting saturated) there are lots of other technical trades that haven't been tapped into in this country which can earn you fabulous money like being a commercial diver, pipe fitter, plumber, steam fitter, maritime welder, machinist, boiler maker, construction and steel worker, rotary drill operator for the oil and gas industry, aircraft mechanic, carpenter, avionics technician, pile driver operator, heavy equipment operator, e.g cranes, forklifts, bulldozers etc, electrician, wind turbine technician, millwright, brick mason, HVAC technician, industrial machinery mechanic, CNC machine tool programmer, mobile heavy equipment mechanic, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Dental Hygienist, Computer Network Architect, Applications Software Developer, Computer Programmer, Database Administrator, Funeral Service Manager, Film or Video Editor, Multimedia Artist or Animator, Web Developer, Diagnostic Medical Sonographer, Engineering Technician, Electeical or Electronics drafter, soumd engineering technician, respiratory therapist and the list comtinues.

ObaOloye:
Sorry to say this but i have to. Your grammar, comprehension and pride as a 'graduate' are not a par. Check your dictionary for the meaning of apprentiship and pratice reading and comprehension more.. The Op is simply telling the gospel truth. No company would hire u cos u are a 'graduate' but on your inherent abilities as a person and on your capacity to learn and be productive. We should see being a graduate as class admit card that allows you to enter the market which is based on continous capacity development.

Dirkcoyt:
You're not serious ! Graduate should turn apprentice?
After reading all through? i ts simply a waste of time to go to the university to become an apprentice of a road side.


What have always propose is, vocational skill acquisition at the roadside while in secondary for good 3 yrs of senior school ss1-3 . after gained skill they will decide to further based on area of skill they have acquire. during their university days the government post them to companies every holiday to learn the professional side. Now they have both skill and field experience. by the time of graduation what you have is a full scale graduate. Then we sponsor the extremely brilliant mind on research works based on scholarship. I mean the first class. Pay them well as researchers in that way we have brilliant minds in out research sector.

not go turn apprentice after years of tiling in university. nonsense!

akeentech:
Graduated with 2.1, after service no job, swerved to my blogging and online business, now I can employ even the first-class grads.

WinningSun:
the apprentice / handwirk market is already getting saturated also...

Kabaka100:
Ok. Why is the whiteman like zuckerberg, Steve jobs, Jeff bezos the only people thinking big when it comes to starting a side hussle. Without these people, we can't have things like iphone/iTunes, Facebook, Snapchat and Amazon. African youths should just reevaluate their dreams and how to hunt for it. All these idiots doing Yahoo Yahoo, with knowledge of using computers don't the think that they can create another platform that can rival Facebook or snapchat? Na follow follow Africans just dey do since independence. Nawaoo!!!

Opinionated:
By David Adeoye

In those days when many African nations first gained independence (and for the next two decades or so), jobs were plentiful. You hear tales of a graduate getting two or more job offers with a car and sometimes, a residential quarters to match. All on the bill of the employer.

After sometime, it was no longer sufficient to just have a first degree. Only a Master’s degree and or professional qualification would assure such a lofty start. However as the years passed and as both the society and the economy evolved, opportunities for ready jobs with “cool pay” started to dwindle. Attractive jobs in established organizations became competitive.
The economic resurgence of the late 1990s to the early 2000s came with a significant increase in the supply of graduate jobs. New businesses (banks, telcos, IT firms, investment firms, etc) rolled out across the economy on a rather massive scale. Once again, graduates became very much in-demand.

This time, the setting was slightly different: most of the employers were private businesses deploying their own capital, that of other shareholders, and of course borrowed funds from banks, and the bond market. Therefore, recruitment was largely on merit and retention was largely based on performance. Degrees and certificates, though required, had become less important.

In more recent years, the Nigerian economy has seen a marked reduction in the influx of big business. In reality, the economic conditions and our brand of political economy has constrained otherwise big businesses to shrink (in the name of right-sizing, restructuring, refocusing, and those other terms that start with the letter R but never mention retrenchment). Technology has also not helped the fate of the average graduate as a traditional worker, even while it presents immense opportunities for personal growth.

With the rise of technology, and challenging economic conditions, many new businesses now start small, and most older ones aim to be more efficient, more profitable, but not necessarily bigger (at least by headcount). At the same time, the capacity of establishment-type employers to expand their workforce is severely constrained. Budgetary allocations, grants, etc impose a limit.

What do all of this mean for today’s graduate? First, the era of establishment-type jobs with the perks that follow is largely gone. Secondly, today’s employers are far more performance and results-oriented than those of past decades where there was more emphasis on activity and presence. Thirdly, the demand on a graduate’s capacity to contribute at both individual and team level becomes the most important factor in to secure and retain gainful employment.

Now, if capacity to perform has become such a critical element, it is important to ask and get some valid answers to the question: what is the fundamental requirement to perform in a world of service and knowledge work? The answer, to my mind is three-fold: readiness to learn, willingness to work hard, and a disposition to work with others.

In other words, today’s graduate must be willing to accept a first degree for what it really is. Essentially, during the first degree, a person learns to reason and to relate. To build upon this foundation, the individual then has to submit himself or herself to a process of learning something meaningful, specific, and valuable to others. We call this apprenticeship. In the same way that fellows with less formal education have to choose a trade to which he is willing to apply himself or herself.

In the context of today’s work environment, the graduate must see herself first as an apprentice and put the ‘graduate thing’ in the background. An apprentice is first of all, “here to learn”. It’s not about the pay. Rather he’s paying his dues by being on time, attentive, responsive, and above all by being responsible to at least one person: the boss who is then responsible to one set of people: customers. The same way an apprentice aims to be successful at the trade, and not merely follow-the-money, today’s young person with a first degree will have to submit herself to the rudiments and demands of the business.

There are three main ingredients required for an apprentice to be successful: intelligence (or aptitude), interest, and intensity (or how well you apply yourself, call it hard work. On intelligence, there are various types of aptitude, some fellows are gifted with words, some with patterns, some with data, some with music etc. For example, it takes certain traits to be a good tailor or fashion designer. At the same time, not every young person can be a mechanic. In the same vein, not everyone who studied accounting would do well as an auditor. Natural talents provide some guidance for a choice of career.

The second point is interest: what would this young man or woman rather do or contribute to humanity? What drives you? How would you rather work? The combination of intellect and interest manifest in one thing: learning, What are you willing to learn. Permit me to ask in Yoruba: “As a graduate, ise wo l’ofe ko?”. Over the years, I’ve seen many examples that prove this is a far more practical approach than merely sitting, praying, and hoping. Prayer is good but we should direct it at something specific.

Still on knowledge, smartness does not equate to knowledge. You can be smart but empty about certain areas. We all have areas where we are empty. Where we know nothing because we never bothered to, or needed to learn. Many times, what is needed as per intelligence is just a threshold level of aptitude. Often, a more knowledgeable person with the threshold level of IQ would make far better decisions than an uninformed genius.

Lastly, for an apprentice to be successful, he or she must be willing, able, and ready to apply himself with persistence and perseverance. You need to believe the work is both valuable and worth doing. Pouring yourself into what you do, when you’re tired, when others are giving up, is one key trait of world champions. Apply yourself to what you do and someday, you would find yourself at the top.

In a nutshell, it’s not enough to be a graduate. We need to choose to learn something that is both meaningful and valuable and then begin to apply ourselves to what we learn. It may start in a small measure but it will surely lead somewhere great.

Source: http://www.opinions.ng/nigerian-youths-need-make-transition-graduate-apprentice/

cc: Lalasticlala, Mynd44

WinningSun:
you just hit the nail on the head. we need new ways of doing things in this country. if I tell you that there is nothing wrong with our education people will crucify me. Thomas Edison didn't have as much education as we have yet they do more with less.

Kabaka100:
As Africans we need to analyze high achievers. Instead just focussing on getting first class at uni and answering engineer or, we should be looking at how our people can solve simple problems through tech which in hence helps to create global companies that can compete with the western global companies. It's about respect. We get head too just like the oyinbo man but we just have to awaken our self confidence to move forward

IamaNigerianGuy:
I will ignore your insults, they do not add anything to the argument.

In all the countries you mentioned, the youth are separated based on capacity into two streams​ : those bound for vocation and those bound for higher education.
Germany has one of the best systems for vocational education in the world and produces carpenters, welders, automechanics, machine toolers etc. but she also produces world class mathematicians, doctors, electrical engineers, physicists, chemists,philosophers and economists in large numbers.

In Nigeria, because the government is incompetent and leadership is absent, some people push vocational education as a choice for all. All that is, except their children. This is not how it should be. This slap on the face of the youths produces ideas like that which Dangote espoused at a time when he promoted the idea that PhD holders were welcome to drive his trucks.
Imagine Nigeria where Wole Soyinka, Tony Elumelu, Pat Utomi, Chukwumah Soludo, Chike Obi, Femi Falana and others were forced into vocational education. Somehow, I don't think that is a good idea.

There is nothing wrong with vocations but those with higher capacity should be allowed to reach their potential - and that is the responsibility the government has abandoned.

IamaNigerianGuy:
I hope you see the contradiction in your post : the whole idea of getting a bachelor's or masters is to escape vocational work and operate on a higher level.

The whole of the original post is survivalist and reactionary. Asking graduates to prepare for a vocational life will not move us forward. It is an inferior solution to our problems no different from the tripe we regularly hear about sending every youth into farming.

If the aspiration in the 60s and 70s was to become a graduate, and it now is to become a technician, you can see how far we have fallen. Correcting that should be the priority - not creating a permanent underclass.

But hey, this is Nigeria where bad ideas always win out.