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Home Blog Page 5225

Revisiting Nigeria’s Tourism Sector  

By
Fred Nwaozor
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Tourism has over the years showcased its huge capacity in the area of job creation and human capital development, yet it’s often undervalued. Survey reliably reveals that tourism presently provides about 15 percent of the entire world’s jobs.

In spite of the above revelation, it’s appalling that the tourism sector of most countries across the global community, particularly on the African continent, is currently moribund or forgotten.

It’s noteworthy that observing a beautifully-looking environment remains one of the prime desires of every sane being. This is the reason every able-bodied man works assiduously to ensure that his or her immediate surroundings appear enticingly.

Tourism as an area of life or human endeavour is a sector that has over the decades pays an optimum attention to how attractive our surroundings look. This makes the area globally recognized.

Concisely, tourism is the business activity connected with provision of accommodation, entertainment, and other hospitable services for people who are visiting a place for pleasure. In other words, a tourist can be described as a person who is traveling or visiting a certain locality for the sake of pleasure.

Tourism has been proven to be an outstanding industry that can guarantee absolute relaxation for mankind irrespective of background. This implies that no one is exempted when it calls for the essence of tourism among mankind.

In the past, our various heritages were being used by our ancestors as a means of entertaining themselves, and their guests. Presently, the tourism industry has shown that these endowments can equally be utilized as business ventures by upgrading them to international standard.

Noting the positive impact of the tourism industry the world over, it is of no need reiterating that it has contributed massively to the socio-economic development of most nations in existence. Analysts are of the view that the industry currently represents about eleven (11%) of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and that it is a key revenue sector for developing and emerging economies.

Indeed, tourism plays a very vital role in building blocks of a more sustainable future for all, which is community development. Above all, it is widely acknowledged for its capacity to respond to global challenges. In view of this, there is an urgent need for Nigeria and the  likes to follow suit to ensure that the world tourism industry that helps to foster global unity and complete rest of mind is granted preferential treatment at all cost.

Nigeria can encourage the commendable crusade by ensuring that her countless socio-cultural resources are optimally rejuvenated. This proposed measure would not only help to encourage the world tourism industry, but would go a long way to elevate the country’s Gross National Product (GNP), thus strengthening her ongoing sagging economy.

More so, as the world is fast embracing technology and its numerous benefits, it’s imperative for the concerned authorities to consider how to aptly deploy tech measures towards harnessing and showcasing the country’s countless tourism potentials.

To actualize this, we need to first acknowledge the impact of tech on our various activities. Then, we can proceed in engaging capable hands that truly understand the nitty-gritty of the said tool with a view to inculcating it into the sector in question.

Hence, the cognoscenti must be well consulted for the way forward. Also, we must reconsider the country’s policy direction in the area of tourism to ensure that tech measures are duly enshrined therein.

Nigeria as an independent state is made up of over two hundred and fifty ethnic groups, and each of these groups is tremendously blessed with various socio-cultural endowments. These cultural resources including dancing, masquerading, dressing, hunting, fishing, wrestling, and molding of sculptures, just to mention but a few, if well harnessed, would definitely help to revive the nation’s tourism sector, thereby boosting her socio-economic ego.

It’s worth noting that the timing of the World Tourism Day is appropriate, because it comes at the end of the high season in the Northern hemisphere and at the beginning of the season in the Southern hemisphere, when tourism is of topical interest to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held in 2012 emphasized that well-designed and appropriately managed tourism can make a significant contribution to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

The then Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon further highlighted that tourism, which remained one of the world’s largest economic sectors, was specially well-placed to promote environmental sustainability, green-growth, and human struggle against climate change through its relationship with energy.

Ever since its inception, the World Tourism Day has been celebrated to foster awareness among the global community on the essence of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value. The celebration seeks to highlight tourism potential as regards promotion of the SDGs, as well as how it addresses some of the most pressing challenges the global society is currently faced with.

So, as Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the remarkable day, we are all expected to contribute our quota toward ensuring that our respective environments or surroundings become globally recognized as attractive and human friendly localities, so that, generations yet unborn would  live to remember that an attractive environment is a society we all yearn for.

The truth remains that everywhere in Nigeria bears tourism potentials, thus all that is required of the government, among other concerned stakeholders, is to swing into action headlong with the sole aim of doing the needful.

The authorities are, therefore, encouraged to revisit the existing policies guiding the country’s tourism sector with a view to making amends where need be. Apt policy formulation and implementation as well as formidable maintenance culture are other inevitable factors.

It’s high time we quit retrogressive debates and discussions regarding tourism towards focusing solely on progressive ones. Mind you, the goal cannot be aptly and holistically actualized if we continue to jettison tech value.

The tourism sector has strongly proven to possess enormous and formidable economic potentials, hence countries that are still lagging behind such as Nigeria, have to earnestly key into the moving train.

Nigeria Needs A New Strategy To Drive Growth

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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First, when I post things here, let us not see my posts from any political angle. I do not belong to any party and I have no party affiliation. In my village in Abia State (Ovim), they voted against PDP in the governorship election for APC,  voted against APC for PDP in the presidential election, and voted against all incumbent parties in the Senate and House.

Simply, they voted against all incumbent parties! That is how free we are because Ovim does not need anything from any government. We build our clinics, send government money to run our public schools, etc.

That said, this is one plot that shows that whatever the government APC leadership is doing is not working. Why? Check the slope of the Nigeria per capita income since 2000, they stopped the trajectory, when they came in.

Sure, you can accuse the World Bank of using “fake data” but the latest report was clear: “According to the Washington-based bank, the number of poor Nigerians is projected to hit 95.1 million in 2022. They further disclosed that the reduction of poverty in the country had stagnated since 2015, given Nigeria’s rapid population growth.”

Check all economic indicators: the inflection point was in 2015. Irrespective of your party affiliation, we need to ask why?

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

Comment 1: 100% correlation with oil prices with less abrupt changes.

My Response: That is not true. What Nigeria did not make from oil money, it covered via borrowing. So, do not equate this on availability of resources, but rather efficiency on the utilization of resources. In 2014, the national budget was N4. 962 trillion. In 2016, it was N6.08 trillion. Now, it is N17 trillion for 2022.

Even when you compensate for the exchange rate, Nigeria since 2015 has spent most money per year. So, do not rely on oil price since what was lost in oil revenue was borrowed.

I have a more detailed plot on this, picking other indicators and extracting the secondary impacts; from all data, Nigeria has not been prudent on aligning resources to growth. It is not lack of funds, it is lack of execution.

Comment 2: Average Annual crude oil price
2010……….79.47
2011……..111.63
2012………111.63
2013……….108.58
2014………..98.79( at this point we started asking questions, where did all the money saved from oil go?)
2015……….52.32 (Aug 2015, the collapse of oil price is already taking its toll on the Nigerian Economy. PDP made the budget for 2015)
2016……….43.67 (This Government created started to make moves through the budget to diversify the economy because oiloney was no longer viable)
2017……..53.27
2018………..71.34
2019……….64.3
2020………41.93 (covid)
2021……….70.68
2022……..91.82*

My Response: Plot the annual borrowing and at the end, data will tell you that Nigeria was spending more because despite not getting more oil revenue, it borrowed more. Naira is naira whether from oil or debt. The issue is this: what did you do with it?

Comment #3: The APC was actually meant to be opposition party, they were great there, it was never meant to be a ruling party, so when the lot mistakenly fell on them in 2015, they became confused, and it has been a struggle ever since.

On the other hand, the PDP which was never built as opposition party has found itself in unknown territory, and they have lost their way ever since; whatever they tried out as opposition party never worked, because they were not trained in the art.

It takes something extraordinary to be consistently unfortunate, that is exactly where both the APC and PDP have found themselves, albeit for diverging reasons.

Both our problems and solutions are heaped in one basket, and that makes it very difficult to make the right pick whenever we dip our hands inside that basket…

Number Of Poor Nigerians Will Rise To 95.1 Million In 2022 – World Bank

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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Recently, the world bank disclosed that more Nigerians will fall below the poverty line in the year 2022. According to the Washington-based bank, the number of poor Nigerians is projected to hit 95.1 million in 2022. They further disclosed that the reduction of poverty in the country had stagnated since 2015, given Nigeria’s rapid population growth.

According to a report, it was revealed that the covid-19 pandemic that ravaged nearly the whole world, pushed over 5 million more Nigerians into poverty in 2022. The covid-19 crisis skyrocketed the poverty rate in Nigeria, pushing millions of them into extreme poverty, with the GDP growth being negative in all sectors in the year 2022. Those who were slightly above the poverty line before the covid-19 pandemic, saw a lot of them fall into poverty as many more are still estimated to fall.

Had the covid-19 crisis not have occurred the poverty headcount rate would have remained unchanged with the number of poor people set to rise from 85.2 million in 2020 to 90.0 million in 2022, partly due to the population growth. What this implies is that the covid-19 pandemic drove additional millions of Nigerians into poverty. I once tweeted on the Twitter platform that with the way things are going in the country, with millions of people falling into poverty, there might likely not be a middle class in the country anymore. It might unfortunately be a case of, either you are rich or poor.

It is disheartening that a nation like Nigeria that God has blessed with abundant natural resources which are meant to make the country a place of Eldorado and envy to many nations has a large percentage of its citizens living in poverty. This shows that the elected political leaders have been woeful in their performances as they merely mount power for selfish interest, thereby impoverishing the lives of the people. As a result of extreme corruption, even the poverty reduction programs suffer from no funding and have failed to give the needed remedy to this country. The youths in the country are faced with massive unemployment which the President one time described as “lazy youths”. Such a statement is flawed because the same government refused to provide them with adequate jobs.

Due to being idle, so many of them have subscribed to all sorts of vices in society. Yet the irony of everything going on in the country is that there are abundant natural resources, emerging and industrious citizens, a diversified economy which is indeed needed to move a developing country forward. Yet the leaders fail to utilize these resources in improving the lives of the people. Due to the hardship faced in the country, some households have adopted dangerous coping strategies which include; reducing education, scaling back food consumption, etc, which all of these could have negative long-run consequences for their human capital.

If indeed the government is hell-bent on curbing the poverty rate in the country, their efforts will be felt and visible. But rather, they treat the issue with levity as long as they continue to take home huge sums of money as salaries and allowances. Much needs to be done to help lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty because it is often said that “a hungry man is an angry man”. There are ways which the government could go about it, such as;

  • Boosting the health and education sector in the country
  • Expanding social projection
  • Establishment of skill acquisition Centers
  • Provision of jobs
  • Reform of the Agricultural sector
  • Reforming expensive subsidies (including fuel subsidies)

All these above-mentioned and many more if well implemented, will ensure the reduction of poverty in the country. Achieving all these is not rocket science, with clear-cut strategies, they will be effectively implemented.

Resolving The Perennial ASUU-Federal Government Face-off Through Alternative Funding Means

By
Chris Emoghene
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Since 1999 when Nigeria returned to civil rule, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has embarked on strike in no fewer than fifteen (15) times. These range from a few days warning strikes to full blown industrial actions, lasting well over a semester. Demand for better funding and improved working conditions have been said to be the major reasons for these perennial strikes that have seen poor parents/guardians and students as the ultimate losers, because nothing significant has changed in the university system in the last twenty-two (22) years.

This has made me wonder why ASUU, a body of intellectuals, keeps doing the same thing (which has been largely unfruitful) for over two decades and expects a different result. Some of the questions that come to mind include: are there other funding alternatives that can supplement the meagre releases from the States/Federal Governments? Are there no better options than strike actions? What are truly the major hindrances to adequate university funding in Nigeria? Among others.

While I will continue to urge governments at all levels to take education seriously, which has to be shown by adequate funding provision and forward-looking policies formulation and implementation, for Nigeria to make meaningful and sustainable progress; I will suggest that ASUU and university administrators should explore the options below as some of the possible ways of resolving the perennial funding crisis.

ALUMNI ENDOWMENT FUND: Funding of public schools, particularly universities, has become a global challenge for most governments. Therefore, to meet their mandates of advancing knowledge through teaching and research, innovations, community service, among others; and remain a going concern, most universities in the West have resorted to diversification of revenue sources- including endowment funds. Endowment funds for some universities run into several billions of dollars. These are usually contributed or donated by such institutions’ alumni, other individuals and corporate organizations towards the continuous actualization of the school’s mandate in a sustainable manner.

Having worked well in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, for instance, I always wonder why universities in Nigeria have not keyed into the huge opportunities in endowment funds. This led me to conduct a research to ascertain the willingness or otherwise of Nigerians to contribute to an alumni endowment fund. The research was conducted both online and in-person. The research question was “In view of the ASUU-FG face-off, will you contribute to your alma mater’s “alumni endowment fund” annually, as one of the ways of ensuring sustainable funding, if proper system and accountability are in place?” To this, 52% of the respondents answered in the affirmative. 34% said they won’t contribute to an alumni endowment fund, while 14% were undecided. Worried by the large percentage of graduates who are unwilling to give back to their alma mater, I probed further to know what the issues are. The exercise threw up a serious issue in our university system that requires urgent attention- students/lecturers relationship. Almost all the respondents who said “No” cited their experiences in the hands of lecturers and the school system in general as reasons. Here are what some alumni have to say. “God forbids!”, “I do not feel any affiliation to the institution. There was no tradition, no communal spirit, and the faculty definitely did not inspire students to be proud of the school. My better memories were actually my interactions with other students.” “This is supposed to be a laudable initiative but it might suffer like the disparaging feeling of leadership across board. This will sit in the paradigm of what the school did for you when you were there.

Did they provide the needed tutorship and educational care? Most tertiary institutions in Nigeria after the 80s never did anything for their students. Students did almost everything for themselves. So why should I give them? Why would I get involved when some of these lecturers actually frustrated some of our colleagues in school? This sort of thing happens when a school ecosystem builds and supports the individual and most importantly, ensures his or her progress.” It is unfortunate that most lecturers see themselves as gods, creating a master/servant relationship and making the university experience horrible for most students. In my set’s WhatsApp group, discussing our alma mater and course lecturers is usually a sure way to open old wounds for most people. Interestingly, those who said no to voluntarily contributing to a university alumni endowment fund agreed to supporting their secondary school to any length.

Beyond the noxious lecturers/students’ relationships, the institutions themselves have failed on many fronts. How many schools have up-to-date data about their students and alumni in an easily retrievable and ready use manner? This in itself will pose a serious problem to the success of any endowment fund being set up. Most schools in the West have offices specifically for their alumni engagements and this can be attributed to one of the reasons why their endowment funds have been so successful. In the course of putting this piece together, I checked the website of ten (10) federal universities to get insight into their alumni associations and what they are doing.

Of the schools looked into, University of Lagos and University of Jos stood out but can also be improved upon. They appear to have a well-coordinated alumni associations that are well integrated into the institutions, so much so that Unilag alumni has a permanent seat in the university’s governing council. That is highly commendable. For University of Ibadan, apart from their home page which was updated last in 2020 and indicates that they have over 450,000 graduates in about 160 countries, the other pages did not open. The other schools either did not have an alumni page or it did not open at all.

The way forward: Lecturers have to put human face to teaching and learning. There should be connection and rapport between lecturers and students to create an awesome experience that would always make alumni have a sense of gratitude and feel the need to give back to the institution. Also, instead of treating students as just numbers, schools must begin to view every student’s engagement as an opportunity for positive impact and lifelong relationship. Data must necessarily be effectively collected and efficiently processed from the point of admission till whenever; and used for the betterment of the student/alumni, university and society at large.

I understand that on funding, ASUU is demanding N200 billion (Two Hundred Billion Naira) only yearly for 5 years. Now, according to reports, there are 49 Federal Universities in Nigeria. This translates to N4,081,632,653.06 per institution per year on the average. Only the alumni listed on their sites, for Unilag and Unijos, alone can comfortably raise this cash for their respective alma maters. For UI, if 100,000 out of the over 450,000 graduates donate an average of N50,000 each, that is N5 billion.

From the above, it is very obvious that lack of coordination and lack of confidence in the school management (as to utilization of funds) are/will be the major hinderances to the successful establishment and management of Universities’ Alumni Endowment Funds in Nigeria. Therefore, if properly handled, once there is transparency, accountability and corporate governance in the university alumni endowment funds, not only will alumni contribute to it directly, they would also mobilize funds from their organizations and charity organizations abroad to support the cause.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF RESEARCHES: There has been increasing calls for the commercialization of universities’ research works. Top politicians, industry experts and some academia across the world have been advocating this as way of bridging the gap between the industry and higher institutions, and also to act as an alternative source of funding in the face of governments tight budgets. Extensive researches and a lot publications have been made on this subject, both for and against. Some universities around the world have started enjoying the gains of research commercialization, after mitigating against identified risks. Specifically, the success story of research commercialization has been told in Nevada Today’s edition of April 5, 2021.

It is my opinion that Nigerian universities can benefit from massive funding from large corporations, because some organizations will be ready to outsource their research and development (R & D) department or a part of it to the universities, once appropriate laws and enforceable agreements are in place. Also, relevant data access, up-to-date equipment usage, and technical skills transfer from industries to universities for practical experiences are derivable from such collaborations.

This will eventually bring about a healthy competition that will lead to more innovation and attraction to Nigeria and foreign students.

ENTERPRISE AND CONSULTANCY SERVICES: A twitter user mentioned a university name, with massive hectares of land, and asked rhetorically, “how much does XYZ generate from this land annually?” He went ahead to make an analysis of how much they should be making cultivating maize on 5,000 hectares of the university’s unused land. My independent search showed that at a production rate of 1.69 tonnes of maize per hectare, 5,000 hectares would generate N2,112,500,000 (Two Billion, One Hundred and Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira) at N250,000 per tonne of maize; assuming a cultivation of once a year. “With the massive population of students in the school, why can’t ABC produce bread that can serve the university community?” A friend also asked in a similar fashion.

I know some universities run consultancy services, but how effective and profitable? A school that teaches how to be resourceful must first and foremost be resourceful. With proper structures and good corporate governance in place, this is expected to enhance hands on practical learning experiences for departments that are directly involved.

Finally, I recommend further research on each of the points above for possible implementation.

I thank all those who graciously participated in the research, especially Dr Joe Abah, former Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reform, whose retweet helped the research question to get huge engagements.

Tekedia Announces Scholarships from Prince Fadipe Foundation for Ekiti State University

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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0

Tekedia Institute is excited to announce a very generous scholarship from Prince Fadipe Foundation. Through the scholarship, many students of Ekiti State University will attend Tekedia CollegeBoost, a mini-MBA designed for college students. Among others, the Foundation provides “career mentorship and economic empowerment to those who need it the most”. The PFF scholars will spend the next eight weeks at our Institute.

Tekedia Institute thanks the Trustees of this Foundation led by Oluwaseun Fadipe, Ph.D, PMP®,MBA for providing this generous scholarship to enable young people continue to learn during this extended strike in the Nigerian university system.

Check the photos of the scholars here.

 

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