PRIVATE SECTOR, ACADEMIA DIALOGUE
BY MUDA YUSUF, DG,
LAGOS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION
I welcome the opportunity of this
presentation and interaction with the
academic community.
 One of the major challenges of the
Nigerian economy is the challenge of
unemployment.
 Huge pressure on Training Budget for
Private Sector
 Better communication between the
Academia and Industry is part of the
solution

INTRODUCTION
The mismatch between the graduates of
our tertiary institutions and the industry is a
major contributing factor to this problem.
 It is our desire that the supply of graduates
should be guided by the demand. In other
words, the production of our graduates
should be demand driven.
 This approach will significantly impact on
mitigating the unemployment situation in
the country.

SIZE OF NIGERIAN ECONOMY
The size of the Nigerian economy is
large.
 The biggest on the African continent with
a GDP of over $510 billion
 This reflects the huge manpower
demand. There is a correlation between
the size of the economy and manpower
requirements.

STRUCTURE OF THE ECONOMY
Sectoral Contribution to GDP – Q2, 2014
Sectors
Finance & Insurance
IT/ Communication
Manufacturing
Agriculture
Entertainment
Transport
Mining
Auto
Professional Services
Accommodation and food
Health Services
Public Administration
Oil and gas
Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management
Contributio
n to GDP
(%)
3.22
11.8
10.16
20.89
0.21
1
0.3
0.09
3.44
5.3
0.75
2.92
0.15
SECTORAL GROWTH
In sectoral terms, the economy and
many of the sectors have been growing
significantly .
 These sectors need to be serviced to
sustain the momentum of growth.
 All these also indicate that the
unemployment situation in the country
may not be as bad if there is a better fit
between the quality of graduates and
the manpower gaps in the economy.

SECTORAL GROWTH
Sectors
Finance & Insurance
IT/ Communication
Manufacturing
Agriculture
Entertainment
Transport
Mining
Auto
Professional Services
Accommodation and food
Health Services
Public Administration
Oil and gas
Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste
Management
Sector Growth Rate (%)
7
7.95
14.01
3.68
13.46
3.32
34.7
23.56
6.56
23.86
6.86
1.17
21.06
PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
There are three major dimensions to
this.
 The first is intellectual development; that
is the development of the mind,
 The second is personality development;
which has to do with self confidence that
education gives.
 The third is skills development; that is
the capacity to physically solve
problems, or fix things.

SKILL CONTENT OF CURRICULUM
Curriculums have varying degrees of skills
and intellectual development content.
 Some disciplines with high skill content
include medicine, nursing, architecture,
catering, theatre arts, theatre arts etc.
 Many other academic disciplines do not
have high skill content and this affects their
capacity to quickly fit into the industry. The
economy at this time needs a lot of skilled
manpower to drive development in the
various sectors.

INTELLECTUAL CONTENT



The intellectual content of the academic
programme is also of high value especially
with respect to courses in social science,
humanities, Law and physical sciences.
However, many of these will require additional
professional qualification to make the holders
more appealing to employers.
Such areas of business they will fit into include
managerial functions, marketing functions,
accountancy, journalism, engineering,
research, religious studies and spiritual
leadership, history and archives, human
resources, Public relations, advertising etc.
WRITING SKILLS
One of the major challenges faced by
employers across oil sectors is the literary
quality of graduate of tertiary institutions.
 In the workplace, communication is very
important; there is the verbal and written
communication.
 Many graduates cannot produce quality
write ups. This often forces employers to
spend a lot on training their employees on
writing skills.

DEMANDS FROM ECONOMICS
GRADUATES
For an economics graduate to bring value
to the workplace, the quality of application
of economic theory and principles to
economic problems is very germane.
 Many graduates of economics do not
possess these skills. There is too much
concentration on abstract, quantitative
analysis on economic theories, equations
and graphs, most often to the detriment of
their application to real life situations.

VALUE OF EDUCATION
Ultimately, the value of education lies in
the capacity to solve real life problems
to meet the demand of industry and
households.
 Investors are looking for value when
they engage any employee. The worth
of an employee is measured by value
that the employee brings to the
business.

CHARACTER QUALITY
Many employees are concerned about
the issues of character of staff.
 Many SMEs have lost huge sum of
money to fraudulent staff therefore
character is very key in terms of the
value that employers expect from
graduate of tertiary institutions.
 There are too many cases of fraudulent
staff which puts organisations’ existence
at risk.

VALUE OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Academic research should be demand
driven in order to be of interest to the
business community.
 It must be targeted at solving industry
problems.
 This is the surest way to get research
outcomes to be commercialised.

FOCUS ON CONTEMPORARY
ECONOMIC ISSUES
The business community expects
graduates of economics in particular to
be well informed about contemporary
economic issues
 Annual budgets of the Federal and State
governments,
 Monetary Policy Communiqué of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),
 World Bank Development Reports

MANPOWER GAPS
Currently there are significant manpower
gaps in the following industries:
 Construction industry,
 Power Sector
 oil & gas,
 logistics and maritime,
 ICT, Telecoms
 Automobile
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Human Development Reports,
 Investment Climate Reports, Global
Competitiveness Reports,
 Trade Policy issues and impact on the
economy, tax policies, exchange rate
policies,
 Global oil market issues,
 Country risk analysis and global risk
analysis.
