In the next 10 years, Nigeria is going to experience one of the fastest and largest accumulation of wealth in its recorded history. The indicators are evident – this is a cambrian moment of entrepreneurial capitalism at an unprecedented level. But as this happens, many would be left behind. In short, the inequality would create many pockets of nano-conflicts in the nation if policymakers fail to lead.
Wealth which will be created between now and 2030 would be concentrated in the hands of extremely well educated young people, and creating that wealth will not touch many people through employment.
Today, we have startups in Lagos with valuations in excess of $50 million with just 25 staff when banks that employ more than 6,000 people are struggling with a valuation of $40 million.
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If our policymakers are thinking, now is the time to begin to look at ways to ensure the Nation can rise #together. And most importantly, investing in digital education should be a human rights matter in Nigeria now. If not, the dislocation will trigger huge consequences in our future.
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How do you ensure we rise together? By designing and building economic systems, our understanding of functioning economic remains highly flawed, so what most people do is betting, you put in money on something with high yield and quick returns, then you cash out.
Is digital education the answer? No chance, we haven’t done the fundamentals, and you are talking about the peripherals?
We do not produce enough corn, the same for starch, the same for ethanol, the same for sugar, our mining sector is pathetically underperforming, and we think large amount of wealth is concentrated in digital startups with few staff and large valuations? We always diagnose wrongly, both the investors and operators, and at the end we only scale hunger and conflict.
Nigeria is still largely an artisan economy, but we think graduating more lawyers, accountants, public administrators, etc, etc, means development, we are never ready to work on the things that matter.
We need to have a rethink and learn to measure investment by impact, not market valuation, because the economy is not a developed one yet. We are not fair to our people when we design systems that only support the brightest, no country has majority of its population as bright people.