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Nation building: Communities, inclusion and prosperity – Part 2

By Akinwunmi Ambode
12 November 2018   |   4:20 am
Over three-quarters of the poorest women in Nigeria have never been to school and 94 per cent of them are illiterate.Five million of our people face hunger. More than 112 million people are living in poverty in Nigeria. 57 million Nigerians lack safe water. Over 130 million lack adequate sanitation.

Ambode. twitter.com/AkinwunmiAmbode

Over three-quarters of the poorest women in Nigeria have never been to school and 94 per cent of them are illiterate.Five million of our people face hunger. More than 112 million people are living in poverty in Nigeria. 57 million Nigerians lack safe water. Over 130 million lack adequate sanitation.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Q2’2017 report stated that the country’s unemployment rate rose from 14.2 per cent to 18.8 per cent. Underemployment is also close to 20 per cent. We need to understand these statistics for us to realise why we need to talk about nation building, inclusion and prosperity.

CBN’s data indicates that only 48.6 per cent, equivalent to 46.9 million Nigerians have access to formal financial services. This is behind developed nations, but it is also behind some of our African peers.

According to the World Bank, only 39.4 per cent of adult Nigerians have bank accounts with only 5.6 per cent having access to mobile money service. In other words, millions of our people are excluded from the formal banking and financial systems. To build a virile nation, we must pursue financial inclusion aggressively.Nearly 10% of newborn deaths in the world last year occurred in Nigeria (UNICEF: 2017).

What really is inclusion?
According to the World Bank framework for inclusion, Social Inclusion is the process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society. It is also the process of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of people, disadvantaged on the basis of their identity, to take part in society.

Individuals and groups want to be included in three interrelated domains: markets, services, and spaces.
Intervening in one domain without consideration of the others is likely to be one of the most important reasons for the limited success of inclusion policies and programs.

I can use Lagos as a good example of a society practicing social inclusion because Lagos is a classical example of a cosmopolitan city that has imbibed every other person to succeed in anything that they try to do.

MARKETS
In their day-to-day interactions, people engage in society through four major markets—land, housing, labor, and credit—all of which intersect at the individual and the household level.

SERVICES
Access to services is essential to improving social inclusion. Health and education services enhance human capital. Social protection services cushion vulnerable groups against the effects of shocks and promote their well-being.

SPACES
Physical spaces have a social, political, and cultural character that solidifies systems and processes of exclusion.

INCLUSION MATTERS
Intense global transitions are leading to social transformations that create new opportunities for inclusion as well as exacerbating existing forms of exclusion. So we must ensure that we do not exclude people or groups from building a great nation.Social inclusion matters for itself. But it also matters because it is the foundation for shared prosperity and because social exclusion is simply too costly.

There are substantial costs—social, political, and economic—to not addressing the exclusion of entire groups of people.A sustainable path towards ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity also involves creating an inclusive society, not only in terms of economic welfare but also in terms of the voice and empowerment of all groups.

We must begin to realise that every strata of the society counts, we must listen and accommodate all views, whether they are poor, whether they are Igbos, Hausas, whether they are rich, Muslims or Christians, we must put everything in a basket for us to be able to build the nation correctly. An inclusive society must have those institutions, structures and processes that empower local communities, professional associations, artisans, CDAs so they can hold government accountable.

It also requires the participation of all groups in society, including traditionally marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities and indigenous populations, in decision-making processes.

Ensuring inclusion and evolution of a prosperous community
To ensure inclusion and evolve prosperous communities, social policy needs to move beyond conventional social service approaches toward development’s goals of equitable opportunity and social justice.

Thankfully, the Nigerian economy has turned a corner and we continue to see positive indices of economic recovery and an encouraging outlook for the future.
However, economists have stated quite strongly that for Nigeria to attain its potential, we need the economy to grow by 6-7 per cent a year because the population growth is almost 3 per cent. This is critical if we are going to move the needle in reducing poverty, preventing social unrest and unlocking the full potential of this country.

To meet our growth ambitions we need jobs and we need to increase productivity too. Nigeria has the advantage of a large population, but the majority are under-skilled. It is imperative to equip workers with the skills needed to keep pace with an economy in transition like Nigeria.

Average productivity of a worker in Nigeria is very low at US$2.24/hr relative to US$19.68/hr in South Africa and US$29.34/hr in Turkey. Improvements in productivity will require investments to ensure a broad availability of good quality education as well as relevant vocational training to improve value-added activity across key sectors such as manufacturing and services.

We need to close that gap in economic and political power between women and men. Providing both girls and boys with education is a first step. Quality education is the basis for jobs and income. A modern, competitive economy needs the best heads and hands, regardless of gender. This is sound economics and simple common sense.Government need to implement structural reforms to enhance efficiency, making valuable long-term investments in technology and science to support research and development.

In addition, governments also need to support the economy to provide jobs for their fast-growing young populations. They should also encourage businesses to provide lifetime training to workers, ensuring they continue to have relevant and valuable skills to support employment as they age.Professional services firm, PwC in its World in 2050 posited that governments of emerging markets should follow a two-pronged approach:

First, they should continue to develop strong institutions, and macroeconomic fundamentals. Second, they should continue to invest in infrastructure, to aid the development of other industries, and education, to develop a broadly skilled and flexible workforce. I believe these suggestions are apt for our circumstance.

While digital revolution is affecting financial services, we need to decide together what type of financial system will really impact employment and bring more people into the formal financial system.We must also continue to fight corruption.

Inclusion and prosperity: the Lagos example
Our vision to make Lagos safer and more prosperous for the people is driven by the need to foster and build an inclusive society – A Lagos that works for all. This has been our primary focus in the last three and half years. This vision of making Lagos Africa’s Model Mega City and Global Economic and Financial Hub is reflected in everything we have been doing. Bringing our communities together to ensure the future prosperity of Lagos State is non-negotiable. I am convinced that we are on the right trajectory and that’s the way to go if Lagos is going to show a very good example to the rest of the country.
Let me share just a few statistics to show you just how important Lagos is to the success of Nigeria.
To be continued tomorrow
Ambode is Governor Lagos State

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