Microscale embedded Limited estimates that electronics manufacturing is set to become one of the highest employer of Graduate and skilled workers by 2016.

Microscale is the pioneer of the industry and one of the goals of our company is to find a way to reduce unemployment among graduates by not only providing them the skills that will help them become self-employed and job creators but also serving as an example of how this can be done successfully in addition to providing support services that will help them get started.

Nigeria’s economic growth in the past decade has not lead to a corresponding job creation because the major industries; oil, banking and telecoms, are not labour intensive. We believe that manufacturing of electronics products could change all that.

Electronics products are not that costly to make. Just like software, all you need to make an electronics product is your knowledge. But unlike software, you also need a factory to mass produce your product for the market. It is the factory requirement that has discouraged many would be entrepreneurs to go into software rather than electronics.

Microscale’s contract design and manufacturing (CDM) was introduced to eliminate the requirement for a factory. If you have any product idea, all you have to do is design it and then outsource the production to us. CDM has opened its first assembly line to produce our ACO (automatic changeover switch) with an initial production capacity of 200 units a month. Our design and manufacturing services is already receiving patronage from home and abroad and we are currently handling a project from a Dubai based company.

In addition,

1. We are currently investing in products that are of high interest to the educational sector some of which are
   • Training and development kit
   • simulation packages for training and research
   • Educational materials starting with the tertiary institution followed by secondary schools and primary schools
2. We are currently developing industrial products for our petroleum sector; telecommunication sector; production plants and industry by design automated and control systems
3. We are currently investing in household appliances and devices example is the ACO (automatic change over) which is already in the market and many more which are in the development phase
4. We are currently investing in professional training services in all facets of electronic design and production process
5. We are currently investing in providing best customer services which includes technical support and after sales services

This is in line with our mission which is to be a one stop shop for products and services that is required to make electronics products.

Now, we have an additional mission, namely to have our products in every Nigerian home and beyond. To achieve this, we will need to rally the entire engineering community to work with us. We will need to convince students to consider a career in electronics. Most EE students divert into IT upon graduation in order to secure a job in banking or telecoms. It is our job to convince them to pursue a career in electronics.

We do understand that there will be so many challenges along the way some of which are lack of adequate skilled labour. To overcome this, we are have embarked on collaboration scheme with tertiary institution to provide free training seminars, donate free development boards to our tertiary institutions and also make available low cost development kits with free training materials that can be purchased by students.

Other challenges will be competition from imported goods. We believe in the free market, and we believe we can compete with the very best out there. However Nigeria is disadvantaged compared to the developed countries, and we will encourage government to implements policies that will favour job creation in Nigeria.

We hereby, seek for support from relevant organisations, Government agencies and every Nigerian citizen to support and patronise Microscale products and services and give us a chance to grow.

According to our plans, thousands of graduates should be out of the street by working with us directly to achieve these goals and millions gainfully employed from other sectors rendering services.

Editor’s Note: This post was authored by Microscale Embedded, Kaduna, Nigeria.