This is a digital artifact that conveys how the nature of work is changing in Nigeria and what the Nigerian government can do to prepare and support its workforce. It talks about various critical issues; like unemployment, maternal deaths and childhood mortality. It also talks about stunting, healthcare and malnutrition among other issues and suggests solutions to these problems.

1. Nigeria and The Changing Nature of Work
Digital Artifact by NNA Adejumoke
September 09, 2019

2. 01
02
03
04
InNigeria, 1 in 13 women die either from
pregnancy or childbirth. 1 infive Nigerian
children never reach theage of 5.
Nigeria has the 2nd highest burden of stunted
children in the world.
2 million children in Nigeria suffer from severe
acutemalnutrition (SAM) .4
1 in every 5 of theworld's out-of-school children
is in Nigeria. 5
Nigeria Human Capital Index rank is 152 out of
157 countries. 6
Nigeria has a crimeIndex of 63.64 7
Over 13,000 people killed in Nigeria’s
insurgency. 8
Ithas the lowest tax-to-GDPratioof any
nation at just 5.9%. 9
87million Nigerians are in abject
poverty.
Informalityconstitutes 60% of theentire
Nigerian economy. 10
Nigeria is the
country with the
largest population in
Africa and the7th
largest population in
the world.1
With approximately
200 million people.A
working age
population of 115.5
million. 2
4 in 10 people of it’s
workforce are
unemployed or
underemployed. 3 05

3. WEF estimates 46% of work
activities in Nigeria are
susceptible to automation.
There is an urgent need for
the Nigerian government to
invest in human capital.
However high-skilled jobs are
going to be created. 12
In Nigeria, 27 digital
platforms already offer
financial services. E.g.
Jumia, the first African
tech unicorn worth over
USD1 billion. 11
What is Changing in The Nature of
Work in Nigeria?
Rise of The Digital
Platform
Marketplace
Technology Is
Threatening Routine
Jobs

4. IncreaseRevenue Mobilization by closing tax
loopholes and exceptions and imposing strong
penalties for tax evades.
Enhance Social Protectiontoensure nationwide
coverage that is not dependent on aformal wage
employment.
Improve quality of healthcare and nutrition to
reduce mother and child mortalityrateand
stunting in children.
InvestIn Human Capital and Lifelong Learning.
Especially early childhood learning and lifelong
learning.
What Can Her Government Do?

5. .
InvestingInQualityEducationInNigeria
Today Singapore’s education system is considered the best in the
world. It adopts a pedagogical framework called Teach Less, Learn
More which focuses on the “quality” of learning and the
incorporation of technology into classrooms and not just the
“quantity” of learning and exam preparation.
The Singaporean government invests heavily in education. Nigeria
spent only 7.04% of the 8.6 trillion 2018 budget on education.
Focus is made on developing excellent teachers. In Singapore,
teachers get 100 hours of training a year to keep up to date with
the latest techniques. The government pays them well, too,
teachers are paid about the same as their peers in private-sector
professions. Teachers are also subject to rigorous annual
performance assessments. 13
Nigeria can use Singapore’s educational system as a framework
for reforms.

6. InvestingInLifelongLearningInNigeria
First, recognize all forms of learning, not just formal
courses of study.
Partnership between public authorities and education
service providers (schools, universities, etc.), the business
sector and the social partners, local associations,
vocational guidance services, research centres, etc.
Insight into the demand for learning in the knowledge-
based society – which will entail redefining basic skills, to
include for instance ICT. Analyses should take into
account foreseeable labour market trends. There is the
requirement for collaboration in policy development and
implementation among a wide range of partners,
including ministries other than education.
Adequate resourcing and ensuring the effective
allocation of existing resources and encouraging new
forms of investment.
Facilitating access to learning opportunities. 14

7. ImprovingHealthcareandNutritionInNigeria
Improve health systems funding and accountability
Regulation and enforcement in public health e.g., water
quality monitoring, slaughterhouse hygiene and food
safety.
Health promotion e.g. observing days like “Diabetes day”.
Facilitating access to learning opportunities. 15
Nigeria launched Africa's largest national school feeding
programme in 2016. Sadly, there have been complaints
of poor quality of food, irregular provision of meals, and
inadequacy of funds being recorded in some states.
Proper monitoring systems should be put in place to
ensure it achieves it’s intended purpose. 16

8. EnhancingSocial ProtectionInNigeria
Allocate resources to scale up social
protection programmes.
It could be through cash transfers which
promote economic empowerment, while
decreasing poverty and food insecurity
Universal coverage and accessibility should
be guaranteed.
Above all it should be adequate.

9. IncreaseRevenueMobilizationInNigeria
Better investments in human capital and
social protection will likely have fiscal
costs between 6 % to 8%.
Taxation systems should be upgraded
where needed.
Tax loopholes need to be closed.
Tax evaders should face strict penalties.
Remove spending away from poorly
targeted subsidies.

10. Conclusion
Thenature of work is changing significantly.Thecost of inaction will be toohigh.Thereis
constant population growth and high fertilityrates adding tothealready overstretched
available employment opportunities. Investmentsin human capital could see adecrease in
thecrime rateof thecountry. Adequate steps need tobe takenby thegovernment toprepare
for thefutureof work in Nigeria.

11. References
1. Akinyemi,,AkanniIbukun."DemographicdynamicsanddevelopmentinNigeria".AfricanPopulationStudies.27:
239–248–viaProQuest.
2. Iloani,FrancisArinze.“Nigeria:20.9MillionNigeriansAreUnemployed-NBS.”AllAfrica.com,20Dec.2018,
https://allafrica.com/stories/201812200151.html.
3. Mbah,Fidelis.“'ItFeelslikeThere'sNoHope':Nigeria'sWorseningJobCrisis.”BreakingNews,WorldNewsand
VideofromAlJazeera,AlJazeera,27Nov.2018,https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2018/11/feels-hope-
nigeria-worsening-job-crisis-181127193954772.html.
4. “Nutrition.”UNICEF, 2015,https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/nutrition.
5. “Education.”UNICEF,https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/education.
6. Awojulugbe,Oluseyi.“WorldBankRanksNigeria152of157CountriesinFirst-EverHumanCapitalIndex.”
TheCable,11Oct.2018,https://www.thecable.ng/nigeria-among-bottom-seven-in-world-banks-first-ever-human-
capital-index.

12. 7.“CrimeinNigeria.”SafetyinNigeria,https://www.numbeo.com/crime/country_result.jsp?country=Nigeria.
8.Ogunlesi,Tolu.“Haveover13,000PeopleBeenKilledinNigeria'sInsurgency?TheClaimIsBroadlyCorrect.”Africa
Check,14Oct.2014,https://africacheck.org/reports/have-13000-people-been-killed-in-nigerias-insurgency-the-claim-is-
broadly-correct/.
9.Fiawoo,Jonathan.“ClosingAfrica'sTaxRevenueGap.”TheGlobalist,15July2018,
https://www.theglobalist.com/africa-tax-evasion-nigeria-togo-technology/.
10.InformalEconomyandPovertyReductioninNigeria,7Aug.2018,https://www.proshareng.com/news/NIGERIA
ECONOMY/Informal-Economy-and-Poverty-Reduction-in-Nigeria/41237.
11.“HomegrownDigitalPlatformsCreateNewOpportunitiesforDigitalFinancialServicesandDataScienceinNigeria.”
insight2impact,n.d.https://i2ifacility.org/insights/blog/homegrown-digital-platforms-create-new-opportunities-for-
digital-financial-services-and-data-science-in-nigeria?entity=blog..

13. 12.Unionbankng.“TheFutureofWorkinNigeria.”Issuu,
https://issuu.com/unionbankng/docs/the_future_of_work_in_ngeria13.Adedigba,AzeezatAdedigbaAzeezat,and
UniversityofJos.“2018Budget:BuhariAllocates7%toEducation.”PremiumTimesNigeria,8Nov.2017,
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/248663-2018-budget-buhari-allocates-7-education.html.
13.“WhatOtherCountriesCanLearnfromSingapore'sSchools.”TheEconomist,TheEconomistNewspaper,30Aug.
2018,https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/08/30/what-other-countries-can-learn-from-singapores-schools.
14.Peter,UdosenNamse.“ANigerianPerspectiveonLifelongLearning.”Namse'sBlog,12June2013,
https://namse.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/a-nigerian-perspective-on-lifelong-learning/.
15.Lakshminarayanan,Subitha.“RoleofGovernmentinPublicHealth:CurrentScenarioinIndiaandFutureScope.”
JournalofFamily&CommunityMedicine,MedknowPublicationsPvtLtd,Jan.2011,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114612/.
16.Hanafi,Afeez,etal.“DashedHope:FrustratingExperiencesofPupilswithFG’sSchoolFeedingProgramme.”Punch
Newspaper,15June2019,https://punchng.com/dashed-hope-frustrating-experiences-of-pupils-with-fgs-school-
feeding-programme/.

14. THE END
Contact me at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adejumoke-nna-2a7b6362/