The immediate-past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi ll, has warned that the country risked falling into irrelevance unless it embraces a knowledge-based economy.
Nigeria’s reliance on its oil, which gave the country a false appellation of the Giant of Africa, is responsible for the nation’s warped sense of greatness, Sanusi said.
Sanusi spoke at the closing of the Kaduna Investment Summit, tagged KadInvest 6.0, where he lamented that besides the current challenges that Nigeria is having in producing oil production, the product is now being rejected in the international market. This, he said, is because there is no longer a future in carbon.
Sanusi said that the future lies in a knowledge-based economy, the theme of the summit, noting that without a change in the country’s economic focus from oil to knowledge, its economy faces imminent collapse.
The former CBN governor pointed out that neigbouring Ghana with smaller economy invests more in education, while oil-rich Nigeria spends only seven percent of its budget on that.
“Globally, work is being redefined; 30 to 40 percent of workers in developed economies will need to significantly upgrade their skills by 2030. And what are the major drivers of this redefinition? ICT and remote working, which we have seen even here with COVID-19,” Sanusi said.
“There is increased automation and Artificial Intelligence. Very soon, robot will take over work in most countries and those who have jobs are those who operate the robots or manufacture the robots, or service the robots.
“For us in Nigeria, the enclave economy that we have, the so-called goose that lays the golden egg is about to die. There will be no eggs. The future is not in the carbons.
“A few months ago, Germany was able to produce enough renewable energy for the entire country’s need. Today, we are having difficulties selling Nigerian oil. So, not only are we having problems to produce, even when we produce, the market is not there.
“So, this is forcing a change, and for us, a country that depends on oil, things need to change.
“Nigeria is ranked 114th in the global innovation index. We are lower than other African countries such as Kanya, Rwanda, and Senegal. We are, in fact, ranked 14th in sub-Saharan Africa. I think we should have this reality check and know where we are as a country. Let’s stop calling ourselves the Giant of Africa because we are the giant with clay feet.
“Countries like Kenya, Rwanda, and Senegal are ahead of us. I am not even talking about South Africa. Our expenditure on education is only seven percent of the budget. We are spending less on education than Ghana; I am not talking about as per the percentage of the budget; in absolute terms, even though the Ghanaian economy is much smaller than the Nigerian economy, even though the Ghanaian government revenue is less than Nigerian revenue, Ghana is spending more on education than Nigeria.
“And we are surprised that industries are moving to Ghana. We are surprised that the Ghanaian President has become the leading President in Africa? We are not investing in education and human capital.
“We have a 68 percent missing job requirement and the major areas being IT, communication and decision making. And the completion rate between entry into primary one and completing university is eight percent, meaning that out of every 100 pupils who go into primary school, only eight come out of university. And out of those eight, nine percent, which is one of the eight will get a job.
“So, this is the reality in addition to what is happening globally. Now, digitisation to level the playing field is required, if we are deliberate and we shift from consumption to value creation. But part of our problem is that, even when we have the solution at our feet, we do not take it.”
