We need more jobs. Desperately.

There is a problem. A big fat hairy problem which needs solving. Somehow, in fact I would settle for anyhow. Youth unemployment. Nigeria churns out hundreds of thousands of graduates into the worst jobs market in recent history. The civil service cannot absorb any more inefficient or simply plain old phantom job creation. When I used to visit Nigeria in the early 2000’s everyone was talking about oil and gas jobs. When I moved back in 2010 all the young folk I spoke to talked about all the exciting jobs in telecoms and banking. The major job creators over the last decade have been in the banking and telecoms sector. Those days are over. The major growth has been achieved. Growth is more incremental. I read last week that Visafone (60) and Stanbic IBTC (250) sacked 310 people between them — This is nothing compared to the last few years where as the banks struggled to survive via mergers and downsizing, they went nuclear on their employees. Between 2009 and today around 15–20,000 j...