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JimTewe Speaks On How to Create jobs In Nigeria


The Chief Executive Officer of Inspiro Consulting Limited, Mr. Jimi Tewe, speaks about the role of government in job creation, in this interview with IFE OGUNFUWA

The rate of unemployment is 10.4 per cent and many solutions have been proffered  without significant improvement. What are your thoughts on the state of unemployment in Nigeria?

It is true that a number of initiatives have been introduced. It is not the initiatives that matter but their effectiveness. For example, we hear the government saying it created 3,000 jobs. Government is not meant to create jobs, and when they make this announcement, you find them employing corps brigades and you see them taking people off the streets to control the traffic. That is good, but some organisations could have done that – private institutions. The role of the government is to provide an enabling environment for economic development through partnership between government, private sector and even civil society organisations. What is happening is that government will let them know its strategic direction. The government can say, ‘We are farming! We realise that there is global food shortage, which is real and we can easily plant food and we are going to support anyone that is going into farming.’ An ordinary Nigerian will key into the initiative if told that they can get access to a tractor and that when he or she produces, people will buy.

There has to be a clear government direction. For example, the government can say, ‘We are going to sign an agreement with Cambodia to supply some equipment, so if anybody plants and harvest, the food items will be bought.’


On the other hand, if the government realises that the country’s strength is manufacturing, it can decide to go back to manufacturing clothing items. For Africa, we find out that there is skill deficit in textile industry and the government can do free trainings for interested people. That is what government needs to do. I understand from the point of the government that they have three years left to implement their initiatives. And unfortunately, we don’t have the culture of celebrating progressive growth. People like outstanding growth. They want to say, ‘When we were there, we did this.’ Nobody wants to say, ‘I set what is on ground for us to implement in 20 years’ time.’ The reality about solving unemployment is that it takes time.

What is mainly responsible for wrong career choices by young people?

There are a variety of factors. Sometimes it is the wrong guidance from presumptions by parents who feel that certain courses are best suited for their children due to their personal aspirations or the fact that one of their friends seems to be doing well in the profession. They feel their children should go into that career. It could be due to improper career guidance in secondary schools, where students don’t know whether they are going to be arts or science students. At that point, there should be a form of assessment. But the assessment that is usually considered is the intellectual assessment. Like how well the student is doing in integrated science or a specific subject. So the one that is doing well across board is placed in science class and the ones who are not doing too well are placed in commercial or art class. That is the general notion.

Sometimes, young people come across people who are excited about what they do. Such a young person will say, ‘When I grow up, I want to be like that person.’ And they get the idea that they want to be a doctor or a farmer based on something that inspired them. I will say that the biggest problem is the lack of proper, structured and stage by stage career guidance that allow people to make decisions concerning their careers. Once you finish your JSS exams, you will have to choose. Once you choose, you will start losing track because when you get to the university and you apply for medicine, they may decide to give you physiology and gradually you are veering off further again and at the end of the day, you are way off the coast and you are wondering where am I. And then life happens to you and you work. And you take the first jobs that you are offered and 20 years after, you will be wondering how did I get here?

What factors should be considered to avoid mistakes in career choice?

When people talk about the intellectual capacity, I am sure there are different theories that speak about cognitive abilities. We just finished the Olympics and I can bet  that those people will fail physics exams. Are they daft? They are not. But they have kinaesthetic abilities; that is their strength. They may know basic mathematics  kinaesthesia is their unique ability. Some people’s abilities are more pronounced and some are hidden.

The basis is understanding that each individual is different and identifying differences in their areas of core interest, differences in personality types, differences in their cognitive and acquired abilities over time. All these things put together are factors that can be considered. This shouldn’t be a one-off thing because self discovery is a process and it takes years and as you keep discovering, you keep modifying your career choices and decisions.

Career choices must be taken in tandem with external realities. For example, if you are born in a particular African country, there are certain opportunities that you will not get maybe due to the level of economic development, compared to another developed economy. You have to identify the abilities you have and based on your environment, plug into the opportunities available.

There should be structures right from primary schools, through information to parents to help them observe the strengths of their kids, with the understanding that people have different areas of strength.
Some are more verbal, some can write very well, some are numerate; those are their strengths. Someone who is very numerate might do well in the finance role. People who are perfectionist will do well in control to check what is not right. All these things will guide decisions on career choice.

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