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Boom in ICT will reduce unemployment – Ekeh

By BusinessNews Staff on July 24, 2015

The increasing rate of unemployment in Nigeria has been attributed to the inability of past governments to use technology as a platform to create jobs for Nigerian youths.
Chairman of Zinox Group, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, who made the observation in a chat with THISDAY said Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has great potential for job creation, but expressed the regret that past government advisers and ministers were blind to see the future benefits of ICT, and failed to harness its potential in the area of national development that would have led to rapid job creation.

He called on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to use technology as a platform for job creation, adding “The only sector that has the capacity to achieve this is the ICT sector and this has been the most ignored sector of the Nigerian economy because most of our country’s government advisers and ministers were too blind to see the future.”

“This century is a century of skill and style and the youths are smarter than their parents naturally because of better educational standard and exposure,” Ekeh added.
According to him, Buhari must consciously create futuristic platforms to accommodate Nigerian youths and this is not rocket science. “I have the capacity to create one million jobs directly and indirectly in three years and I also know some establishments that can do almost that. It is important to note that infrastructural deficiency that the country suffers from is not stumbling block. Whether we like it or not, structured ICT sector is the only hope to resolving our unemployment challenges today and tomorrow,” Ekeh said.
he added: “We have a great future in this country and the technocrats have the capacity to resolve our challenges in few months if we have the absolute support of Mr. President.”
He therefore called for a total overhaul of the country’s educational system, mostly at the tertiary level, insisting that the country cannot be at standstill, even though it will take a minimum of two years to achieve. “I prescribe to a creative and quick resolution as demanded by this century and that is by focusing on mass platform that will give employees a sense of ownership in few years,” Ekeh stressed.
Weighing technology development in other jurisdictions, Ekeh further explained that it is not only in Nigeria that unemployment is a single biggest headache, but that the only difference is that while few other countries have managed theirs scientifically looking at the future, Nigeria has been completely analogue.
Furthermore he said: “You cannot use political theories to resolve unemployment challenges. You are a Nigerian and have read many stories of millions of Nigerians employed in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors with billions spent. How many graduates across local government benefitted? Any country where political job is the only platform for job creation, the leadership of that country is blind and the country has failed.”
He however said if the right ministers are appointed, they will connect with the few technocrats in the country to create jobs for 21st century Nigerians and the youths are digital and therefore impatient at listening to prosperity sermons from past governments.
He pointed out that Nigeria can employ two million graduates with a great future annually with ease. Mr. President can creatively resolve this in months by sincerely connecting with the right people and not overnight rated entrepreneurs who are very rich without a structured office, the Zinox box assured Nigerians.

[ThisDay]

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