Ezekwesil, Others Advocates Human Capital As New Economic Foundation For Nigeria

Former Minister of Education and Vice President, Africa Region of the World Bank, Oby Ezekwesili that Nigeria is in need of a new economic foundation to be regarded as basic asset by all. The new foundation, she said should emanate from a general consensus through dialogue.

According to her, the new foundation to be considered by all as premium asset should have longer sustainability than oil and gas, solid minerals, and agriculture.

Ezekwesili gave the recommendation during a keynote address delivered at the just concluded, “Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum” held in Lagos.

She said the corollary to that consensus would be the economic philosophy that the educated citizenry is the corner stone of the nation’s development strategy and that they would at all times set priorities based on education, health and investments required to produce world class human capital that can compete with the rest of the world.

According to the Senior Economic Advisor, Open Society Foundation (OSF), Nigerians would as part of the consensus define what each citizen represents for the nation.

Regardless of how it is framed, she said, each Nigerian would be capable of skills and proficiency needed to be a contributor to economic, social and political development of the country.

She said any attempt to equate all citizens to mean “boys and men,” while excluding girls and women as inextricable part of the development philosophy, will continue to cost the country the future.

“We could have already become a great nation without the dismal results we have had, if we placed the girls child at the heart of deliberate centering of the citizens in the development agenda and process.”

On the empowerment of the girl child, she said Nigeria must become a girl child empowering nation if the trajectory and outcomes of Nigeria’s development process is to deliver the opposite of past and current dismal standards.

Relying on the World Development Report, she said there is need to reduce gender gaps in human capital, especially in areas relating to female mortality and education and area of economic opportunities, earnings, and productivity, among others.

Similarly, Adjaratou Fatou Ndiaye, Deputy United Nation’s Women Representative for Nigeria and ECOWAS, said the way forward is for Nigeria to adopt approaches aimed at economic empowerment that would help women succeed and advance in the market place.

To her, there is need to improve their access to productive resources, improve the enabling and institutional environments, and assisting women in their ability to make and act upon decisions in order to benefit from economic growth and development.

Ndiaye said the approach adopted must also recognise the fact that economic empowerment is intertwined with social and political empowerment.

“Those policies must extend to the institutional level, where deeply rooted structural constraints limit women’s ability to reach their full economic potential.”