For long, Nigerian polytechnic graduates with Higher National Diploma (HND) have faced discrimination in the labor market, as most employees have a preference for university graduates with Bachelors of Arts/Science, BA/BSc. The situation has kept many tertiary institution graduates, though qualified, out of work. Now Nigerian lawmakers have moved to end the dichotomy.

In an aim to permanently put an end to the discrimination, the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, passed a bill titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between First Degree and Higher National Diploma in the Same Profession/Field for the Purpose of Employment; and for Related Matters.’

The bill proposes to criminalize any sort of discrimination by any person or organization, both in the public and private sectors, against HND certificate holders.

The bill passed third reading after the House had on Thursday, considered and adopted the report by the Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund on the Prohibition of Discrimination between First Degrees and Higher National Diplomas Bill, 2021.

The details of the bill reads partly as follows:

“Notwithstanding any provision in any legislation, circular, regulation or policy guideline, First Degree and Higher National Diploma shall be deemed construed and treated as equivalent qualification for the purpose of employment and career progression at workplace in the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.

“Any provision in laws, enactments, instruments, circulars, scheme of service, directives, or policies by whatever name called, which is inconsistent with the provisions of this bill, shall to the extent of the inconsistency be null and void, and of no effect.

“Holders of the First Degree and the Higher National Diploma (HND) shall be given equal treatment and opportunity in career placements, career progression, admission to further studies and privileges whatsoever in consideration of status as graduates of Nigeria tertiary institutions of higher learning.

“All forms of discriminations and or dichotomy between First Degree and Higher National Diplomas for the purpose of employment, transfer of service, conversion of cadre, career progression, promotion, and other related issues in the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy is hereby abolished.

“No person, authority, entity (body or corporate) in whatsoever name call shall discriminate and or undertake any action in any form whatsoever which is misconstrued as and or intended to give any preferential treatment in favour of and/or against holders of the First Degree or the Higher National Diploma.

“Any person or entity in the public or private sectors of the Nigerian economy who contravenes the provisions of this bill, commits an offence under this bill, and shall be liable upon conviction to a term of two years’ imprisonment or a fine of N1,000,000 or both.

“Any person or entity in the public or private sectors of the Nigerian economy who design, prescribe and or specify any guidelines, terms or conditions of employment, career progression, and or any other instrument by whatever name called in violation of the provisions of this bill shall be guilty of an offence under this bill and liable upon conviction to a term of 1-year imprisonment or a fine of N500,000 (five hundred thousand naira) or both.”

To ensure that the legislation is complied with, the bill prescribes punishment of a fine of N500,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both for any person who induces or encourages any other person for the violation of any of the provisions of the bill.

“Where in any proceedings against any person for an offence under this bill, it is established that any action constituting an offence under this bill has been committed by an officer, it shall be presumed that the action was done with the motive or intent of committing an offence under this bill as the case may be, until the contrary is proved,” the legislation partly reads.

While the legislation has brought relief to a large section of Nigerian graduates, the implementation beckons concern. Many believe that employers are still going to stick to their old ways. Only this time, they’d be careful about it.

The Senate would have to concur to the bill before it will be transmitted to the President for assent.

As Africa transmutes into data-driven societies with people, firms and  nations in interdependent relationships, unlocking the value in data will create competitive advantages.

Knowledge is the altar but data is the tool for the sacrifice. Winning the markets will require business high priests who make sense of data. The kingdom is the market share.

The data in companies is the wealth in companies. Build capabilities and refine your data.

Here, most times, I write to read Francis Oguaju’s comment. Read this comment on the Usain Bolt post – https://lnkd.in/eXT6r7GJ) . Today, Nigeria has scored another own-goal: “Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said that Nigerians would get N5,000 per month as a transportation grant after the removal of fuel subsidies.” If you cannot run fuel subsidies well, do you have any chance to distribute N5,000 monthly effectively?

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said that Nigerians would get N5,000 per month as a transportation grant after the removal of fuel subsidies.

According to the Minister, the Federal Government will remove fuel subsidies by 2022 and give the poorest Nigerians a transportation grant of N5,000.

Ahmed said this on Tuesday, at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update in Abuja, stating that about 30 to 40 million Nigerians, who are the poorest in the country, would have access to the grant.

She said, “The subsidies regime in the [oil] sector remains unsustainable and economically disingenuous

Comment from Francis on this here

According to the minister, we have between 30 to 40 million ‘poor’ people that are eligible to benefit from the N5k grant. Run the numbers, Nigeria will be shelling out between N150 to N200 billion monthly, to be paid to people we do not know. So in six months, we must have burnt over a trillion naira, and how is this cheaper than fuel subsidy? How about other small businesses who rely on fuel subsidy to keep prices low?

This government is a handful, the next decision always tends to be worse than the last one, yet the folks get their salaries monthly; in other words, being paid for running Nigeria into the ground.

This is a bad call, it just shows how wretched the minds of those running the state are.

They will be minting money to distribute, then the sorry naira will finally enter coma.

Apple and Amazon have once again got into trouble with regulators in Europe. The US tech giants, who have been in constant tussle with watchdogs around the world, over antitrust practices were handed more than €200 million ($225 million) in fines by Italy’s antitrust authority.

The fine was for alleged anti-competitive cooperation in the sale of Apple and Beats products. The duo was caught cooperating to narrow the number of sellers allowed to sell some products in Amazon, which according to the watchdog, violates European Union’s anti-competition rules.

“Contractual provisions of a 2018 agreement between the companies meant only selected resellers were allowed to sell Apple and Beats products on Amazon.it,” the watchdog said, adding that this was in violation of European Union rules and affected competition on prices.

The authority imposed a fine of 68.7 million euros on Amazon and 134.5 million euros on Apple, ordering the companies to end the restrictions to give retailers of genuine Apple and Beats products access to Amazon.it in a non-discriminatory manner.

Both Apple and Amazon denied any wrongdoing and said they plan to appeal against the fines, a response they had given in past cases.

“To ensure our customers purchase genuine products, we work closely with our reseller partners and have dedicated teams of experts around the world who work with law enforcement, customs and merchants to ensure only genuine Apple products are being sold,” Apple said in response to the fine.

Amazon also, reacting to fine, called it “disproportionate and unjustified”, saying it strongly disagreed with the decision of the Italian authority.

“We reject the suggestion that Amazon benefits by excluding sellers from our store, since our business model relies on their success. As a result of the agreement, Italian customers can find the latest Apple and Beats products on our store, benefiting from a catalogue that more than doubled, with better deals and faster shipping,” Amazon said.

Europe has been gearing up to confront the excesses of tech companies, amending its antitrust rules to accommodate new developments in the tech industry.

In July, Amazon was handed a record-breaking €746 million (roughly $887 million) fine under the EU signature privacy law, known as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Officials in Europe and the UK have increasingly been scrutinizing the business practices of the companies including Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google amid allegations they have harmed competition and abused consumer privacy.

US companies have been largely at the receiving end of new GDPR rules, receiving record-breaking penalties each at a time. With each fine, European regulators seem more determined to zero in on the Big Tech, while the tech giants appear more determined to contest it. It is going to be a long faceoff.