Nigeria has significant natural resource wealth, ranking in the world’s top 10 for proven reserves of oil and gas. It remains the main oil exporter in Sub-Saharan Africa and is rich in other natural resources. But despite Nigeria’s inherent wealth in natural resources, the challenges facing the country are enormous. The recent oil market shocks and a global trend towards a zero-carbon world economy by 2050, highlight the country’s economic vulnerability.
The federal government has recognized the need for change. Climate change is a catalyst for a disruptive shift towards more sustainable economies worldwide. Nigeria needs to follow suit given the impact on Nigerians already and also the opportunity to build new economic sectors to ensure national development and transformation.
Nigerians are directly impacted by climate change, evidenced by more frequent extreme weather events, droughts, and floods, during which critical infrastructure is damaged and people are displaced.
Farmers and herders are finding ways of coping with the limited means available to them, leading to increased conflicts. The effects of climate change are becoming more apparent; impacts on crop yields and the rising sea levels could impact coastal cities including Lagos and Port Harcourt.
In recent years, there have been initiatives developed by the Government of Nigeria to drive the green growth of the country by leveraging climate-smart initiatives for a cleaner and more sustainable economy and ecosystems. Central to these initiatives is Nigeria’s pledge to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions between 20% and 45% by 2030 under the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) proposes transformational climate change mitigation actions in energy, oil and gas, agriculture, industry, and transport which, taken together, can propel Nigeria into a green economy pathway.
The Nigerian green economy has an estimated investment potential of $250 billion in areas such as renewable energy, waste management, smart agriculture, sustainable transport, and water solutions. These shifts would position Nigeria as a major powerhouse in creating green jobs of the future and further strengthen the private sector in sustaining the country’s GDP as Africa’s largest economy.
HUMAN RESOURCES: Nigeria’s great opportunity In spite of its challenges, Nigeria exemplifies the true promise of diversity and inclusion. It is a country that is awaiting to be unleashed on the world through her people’s energies, creativities and brand, telling a narrative of a thousand fabrics and textiles, caps and hats, festivals, culinary delights, unique birds, flora, exceptional drums and exemplary traditions; grand narratives that elevate the stories of her people, past and present, their dreams, sacrifices and efforts, the stories of how their lives and relations can be lived and what the country could mean to the world.
The incredible fact that about 62%58 of its people are literate, from a very low level at independence, should not be treated as of no consequence. The fact that it is the largest economy in Africa59, has one of the top-three filmmaking cultures in the world60 and is currently one of the most influential music cultures61 are just seen as footnotes. Nigeria has no single hegemonic ethnic group controlling its politics, economy or culture, a global rarity. The enormous human capital that exists in Nigeria is perhaps Nigeria’s greatest opportunity. We cannot ignore the nearmiracle of a country of about 374 ethnic nationalities and about 552 living languages with over 206 million people and in less than 70 years of independence being in the top 25 economies in the world.
The importance of investing in human capital is a lesson from Japan, Singapore and Korea’s development with government working with companies to repurpose human capital in the private sector as well as ensuring that youth and gender friendly policies cut across both social and governance reforms so they are recognised as active agents for change.
The diversity of Nigeria has long been considered a source of conflict, but it is also a great strength, bringing myriad talents together. Nigeria’s many cultures could become its selling point. Nigeria enjoys a vibrant media and civil society which could play an important role in ensuring transparency and accountability.
Education is the key to leveraging Nigeria’s human capital but currently over 10.5 million children, according to UNICEF, are out of school62. Over two thirds of women in the North West and North East have no education at all.
If education is to make a leap forward, it will need to do so with the most marginalized children in mind and acquire a breadth of skills. It is not just literacy and numeracy but also problem solving, communication and flexibility with a focus not just on access but also on improving quality. There are a number of good examples to draw on in the region and to that end a number of countries have increased their share of government expenditure spent on education.
Nigerian culture is now a dominant force providing revenue and contributing to the country’s growing influence across the continent and globally. The country’s entertainment and media industry is projected to become the fastest growing entertainment and media (E&M) market with revenue expected to increase from US$4.5 billion in 2018 to US$10.8 billion in 2023. Nollywood now generates over $1 billion a year65, displacing Hollywood and Bollywood as the most important movie industry on the continent, and is enjoying increased visibility across Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.
The film industry has become a major employer, employing approximately one million people66. With an estimated 50 films produced per week, it has recently been identified as Nigeria’s next “mineral resource” because of its huge economic prospects in a digital economy.
Music is also now big business, growing in sales and global influence.68 It is said that the country’s entertainment and media industry had an estimated total revenue of $4.8 billion in 2015 and was likely to grow to some $8.1 billion in 2019, making it “the fastest-expanding major market globally”.
The Nigerian Fashion industry is reputed to be worth over $4.7 billion70. Fuelled by an increase in demand for Nigerian fashion globally, the sector has experienced an average growth rate of 17% since 201071. Moreover, it is also a good example of how investment in promoting value chains can reap dividends with many of the inputs (textiles, leather etc.) being sourced domestically. Cultural goods have become the economic drivers in today’s digital age and the oil that will lubricate the knowledge-based economy. Much of this success has been done without government support that could be provided to assist. For example, issues relating to copyright and piracy are a serious problem. The World Bank estimates that for every legitimate copy of a movie sold, nine others are pirated with almost all exports pirate copies.
This is mainly due to there being few legal channels for exporting movies, with few or no returns going to film makers or the government in tax revenue. There are also other potential issues that could be addressed including tax reforms to provide incentives and tailor tax policies to the film industry, public private partnership to boost capacities including through establishment/upscaling of training centres and mentorship schemes and through legal reforms to protect intellectual property rights.
There are also good practices to draw on. For example, the Indian Government supported Bollywood through a combination of (1) foreign investment, promoting Indian cinema globally and signing film treaties, (2) supporting training of 1.2 million skilled workers in the sector, (3) crackdowns on piracy, and (4) investments in digitisation (which reduces piracy) all of which led to rapid expansion of the sector.