From Economic Reform to Employment Generation: Why Nigeria Needs a National Jobs Summit

By Osita Ngwu

Nigeria stands at a consequential point in its economic journey. The country has begun the difficult process of confronting structural weaknesses that have constrained growth, investment and productivity for years. The challenge before us now is to ensure that economic reform translates into what every Nigerian can understand and feel: jobs, incomes, enterprise and a more secure economic future.

This is why the conversation about unemployment must move beyond statistics. Nigeria needs a national strategy that connects economic reform with employment generation.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration deserves recognition for undertaking difficult structural reforms aimed at rebuilding the foundations of the Nigerian economy. The removal of longstanding distortions in the petroleum sector, reforms in the foreign-exchange market, efforts to strengthen fiscal sustainability and measures designed to improve the investment environment are significant components of this broader economic reset.

These reforms have inevitably come with difficult adjustments. Millions of Nigerians have experienced higher living costs and significant economic pressures. These concerns cannot and should not be dismissed. But it is equally important to recognise that an economy burdened by structural distortions cannot achieve sustainable prosperity without reform.

The task, therefore, is not to choose between reform and prosperity. The task is to make reform deliver prosperity. That is where employment becomes the next great national imperative.

Nigeria’s employment challenge is more complicated than the official unemployment rate alone suggests. Millions of Nigerians are economically active but remain trapped in informal, precarious or low-income activities. They survive through petty trading, casual labour, small-scale agriculture, commercial transportation, domestic services and other forms of informal work.

These activities are important to the Nigerian economy. They demonstrate the resilience and entrepreneurial spirit of our people. But survival is not the same as prosperity.

A young Nigerian who works twelve hours a day and barely earns enough to support a family may technically be employed, but remains economically vulnerable.

The relevant question is therefore not simply: How many Nigerians are unemployed? It is: How many Nigerians have access to productive, sustainable and adequately remunerated employment? That is the deeper employment challenge facing the country.

Economic reform does not directly employ people. Investment does. Businesses do. Factories do. Construction projects do. Farms and agro-processing companies do. Technology companies do. Healthcare institutions do. Logistics companies do.

The purpose of economic reform must therefore be to create an environment in which these activities can expand.

The transmission mechanism should be clear: Reform to Investment to Production to Enterprise to Employment to Prosperity. This should become one of the central organising principles of Nigeria’s economic policy.

If reforms improve economic stability and investor confidence, the next objective must be to convert that improvement into capital formation, business expansion and productive capacity. And when productive capacity expands, employment should follow.

The difficult reforms undertaken by President Tinubu should be viewed within this broader context. Nigeria cannot build a sustainable employment economy on an unstable macroeconomic foundation. The administration’s reforms are therefore important because they seek to address some of the structural distortions that have discouraged investment, weakened productivity and constrained economic growth.

The removal of the fuel-subsidy regime, foreign-exchange reforms, efforts to strengthen public finances and initiatives aimed at improving the business and investment environment represent attempts to create a more sustainable economic framework. These reforms should not be viewed as the destination. They are the foundation. And a foundation is not the building. The real challenge is what Nigeria builds upon it.

The next phase must therefore focus on investment, industrial expansion, enterprise development and employment generation. This is where government, the private sector, financial institutions, state governments, legislators and development partners must work together.

Against this background, Nigeria needs a National Jobs Summit. But it must be a summit with a purpose.

Nigeria has held many conferences where speeches were delivered and communiqués produced. The country does not need another gathering that ends with declarations that disappear from public consciousness.

The proposed summit should produce a practical National Jobs Action Plan. It should establish:

• How many productive jobs Nigeria needs to create annually.
• Which sectors can generate employment at scale.
• What incentives should be offered to businesses that create sustainable jobs.
• How MSMEs can obtain affordable and accessible capital.
• How agriculture can become a major employment engine.
• How technical and vocational education can respond to labour-market demand.
• How technology can create new employment opportunities.
• How manufacturing can be expanded.
• How states can develop their own employment strategies.
• How employment programmes will be measured and independently evaluated.

Most importantly, the summit should assign responsibilities, timelines and measurable targets.

Government cannot employ everyone. It should create the conditions for employment, while the private sector increasingly becomes the engine of large-scale job creation.

Businesses need predictable policies, reliable infrastructure, access to finance, functioning markets, appropriate skills and a regulatory environment that rewards investment rather than discourages it.

The objective should be to make it easier for a Nigerian entrepreneur to start a business, survive its early years, expand operations and employ more Nigerians. A business employing five people today should have the opportunity to employ fifty tomorrow. That is how sustainable employment economies are built.

Nigeria’s small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly important. Millions of Nigerians depend on them directly or indirectly. Yet many remain trapped at subsistence level because of inadequate finance, unreliable electricity, infrastructure deficits, limited access to markets and regulatory challenges.

The national employment strategy must therefore focus not merely on creating more small businesses but on helping viable businesses grow and scale.

The objective should be simple: Move Nigerian enterprises from survival to scale. When businesses grow, they hire. When they hire, household incomes increase. When household incomes increase, consumption rises. When consumption rises, businesses grow further. That creates an employment multiplier effect throughout the economy.

Agriculture provides another enormous opportunity. Nigeria must move beyond primary production towards integrated agricultural value chains. The future is not simply about farming. It is about:

Production to Storage to Processing to Packaging to Logistics to Marketing to Exports.

Young Nigerians should increasingly see agriculture not as subsistence activity but as a sophisticated commercial enterprise. Nigeria has the land, climate, population and market to build a globally competitive agricultural economy. What is required is investment, infrastructure, technology, finance, market access and an enabling policy environment.

The jobs economy also requires a transformation of Nigeria’s skills architecture. A university degree should not be the only pathway to economic opportunity. Technical and vocational skills are equally important. Nigeria needs electricians, welders, plumbers, mechanics, engineers, software developers, agricultural technicians, healthcare professionals, construction specialists, renewable-energy technicians, logistics professionals and thousands of other skilled workers.

The country must align education and skills development with actual labour-market demand. The objective should be to produce employable Nigerians and employment creators, not merely certificate holders.

Artificial intelligence, automation and digital technologies are transforming the global economy. Nigeria must embrace these technologies while ensuring that they become instruments of employment creation. The digital economy can generate opportunities in software development, fintech, creative industries, digital services, e-commerce, cybersecurity, data services, online education and remote work.

The national employment strategy should therefore treat digital skills as an economic infrastructure. Employment Is Also a National-Security Strategy. The relationship between economic exclusion and insecurity cannot be ignored. Young people without meaningful economic opportunities can become vulnerable to criminal networks, drug abuse, political manipulation, irregular migration and other destructive pressures.

Employment therefore goes beyond economic policy. It is an investment in national security. Every young Nigerian who gains a sustainable livelihood has a greater stake in the stability of the country. Every successful enterprise creates opportunities for employees, suppliers, distributors and surrounding communities. A job is therefore not just a salary. It is dignity. It is independence. It is hope. It is social stability.

Government alone cannot solve Nigeria’s employment challenge. Neither can individual legislators, businesses or development organisations.

But elected representatives have a responsibility to complement national policy with meaningful interventions within their constituencies.

This is the philosophy behind our modest efforts to create employment and empowerment opportunities for the people of Enugu West Senatorial District.
Legislative representation should not end with making laws and participating in parliamentary proceedings. Where legitimate opportunities exist, representation should also help connect constituents to skills, enterprise, employment and economic empowerment.

Our interventions are therefore a modest demonstration of what can be done at the constituency level. But constituency interventions cannot substitute for national employment policy. They can only complement it.

The proposed summit should culminate in a National Jobs Compact involving government, the private sector, organised labour, financial institutions, educational institutions and development partners. The compact should establish measurable commitments around:

• annual job creation;
• industrial expansion;
• MSME growth;
• agricultural and agro-industrial employment;
• youth employment and apprenticeships;
• technical and vocational education;
• digital employment;
• investment incentives linked to job creation;
• women’s economic participation;
• regional employment strategies; and
• transparent monitoring of actual jobs created.

Nigeria should measure not simply how much money is allocated to employment programmes, but how many sustainable livelihoods those programmes create.

In the real test, GDP growth matters. Inflation matters. Revenue matters. Foreign investment matters. Fiscal sustainability matters. But ultimately, economic policy must answer a more fundamental question: Are Nigerians becoming more capable of earning decent and sustainable incomes?

That is where economic reform meets everyday life. It is where macroeconomic policy becomes household income. It is where investment becomes opportunity. It is where enterprise becomes employment. And it is where employment becomes dignity and prosperity.

Nigeria possesses enormous economic advantages: a large domestic market, abundant natural resources, a youthful population, entrepreneurial energy, agricultural potential and a strategic position within Africa.

The country does not lack opportunity. What it needs is a deliberate strategy to connect these assets to productive economic activity.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken difficult first steps towards rebuilding the economic foundation. The national responsibility now is to build upon that foundation and ensure that the benefits of reform progressively translate into wider economic opportunity.

The next phase must be about turning reform into investment, investment into production, production into enterprise and enterprise into employment.

That is why Nigeria needs a National Jobs Summit. Not another summit for speeches. Not another summit for political declarations. But a working national platform capable of producing a National Jobs Action Plan with measurable targets, clear responsibilities and accountability.

Our modest efforts in Enugu West demonstrate that elected representatives can contribute to employment and empowerment at the constituency level. But the scale of Nigeria’s employment challenge requires a national response.

The foundation is being laid. The next imperative is to build upon it. Nigeria must make employment the bridge between economic reform and shared prosperity.

• Sen Osita Ngwu, Enugu West Senatorial District