One of the sad realities of the recession that hit the economy in 2016 is unemployment across all sectors of the economy. In the wake of the recession, thousands of companies either down-sized their operations or closed shop and sent their workers home. The economy is yet to fully recover from the sad experiences and the consequences of the mass job losses across the economy occasioned by the recession.
Unemployment is generally referred to as lack of job opportunities for able-bodied men or women who are interested in working but cannot find jobs. Unemployed people in the country is now put at 20.9 million people. The massive number of unemployed people is a major reason why it would be much more difficult for the economy to grow this year because a whopping 20.9 million Nigerians who should contribute to the growth of the country are now jobless.
Unemployment can induce people to do a lot of things out of desperation. Since the slowdown in the economy in 2014, it has forced many people to commit suicide and it has forced many others to quit Nigeria and emigrate overseas, some through the much dreaded Sahara desert where some good numbers of them lost their lives while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Some others who were unemployed within the country found their ways to Europe, and the Americas by legal means.
Poor power supply often leads to job losses as it often force many manufacturing companies to move their manufacturing outfits from Nigeria to the neighbouring ECOWAS countries, especially Ghana, where power supply is more stable. The relocation of Dunlop Tyres to Ghana some years back is a testimony to this. Thus, the high cost of running private generators to manufacture products as a result of inadequate power supply from the Discos has been a major reason why local manufacturers cannot compete with importers of similar items that are produced locally, thus forcing the local producers out of business.
Meanwhile, with five years after the sale of the power sector to Gencos and Discos, there are indications that the Federal Government will review the power sector transition market policy performance this year. During these five years, the Gencos, Discos and the Transmission Company have been embroiled in various disagreements over lack of funds to pay for gas supplied to them to generate power, inability of Discos to pay for the power supplied to them and NNPC lukewarm attitude to the issue of gas supply for the Gencos to generate power.
The most critical problem is the Discos inability to supply prepaid meters to their consumers. The Discos are complaining that they lack prepaid meters, forgetting that the prepaid meters are for the Discos and not for the consumers. The power consumed by the consumers deserves to be well metered with prepaid meters.
There is no doubting the fact that if there is improved electric power supply across the country, many foreign investors who have been eyeing the country for possible investment will come and invest. There will be more employment opportunities. However, local investors must also show interest in the country by investing more before foreign investors can come here to invest. Therefore, government must ensure that manufacturers get lower interest on loans taken to import the much needed raw materials for local manufacturing. At the same time, we must improve on our ease of doing business so as to lure many investors into the country.
Gencos have been claiming that they have the capacity to generate more than 40,000 MW but the transmission network cannot take more than 7,000 MW. So, apart from ensuring that more entrepreneurs invest in electric power generation, the critical issues of prepaid meter supply and building a robust electric transmission system must be properly resolved. Investors in large scale solar power production and the production of components for solar power should also be encouraged as this will ensure that electric power get to the remotest villages in the
country.
