Balancing National Strategy
Bill Gates spoke in Abuja last week. The politicians are already attacking the press for not understanding what Mr. Gates said. According to a minister, the media “misinterpreted what American billionaire and philanthropist, Bill Gates, said about Nigeria’s economic plans during his visit to Nigeria.”
The philanthropist and founder of Microsoft corporation said the Nigerian government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) identifies “investing in our people” as one of three “strategic objectives” but the “execution priorities” do not fully reflect people’s needs, “prioritising physical capital over human capital.” Mr Gates said the most important choice Nigerian leaders can make is “to maximise the country’s greatest resource, which is the people.”
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma said “It seems the context in which Mr. Gates made his remarks was not well understood. “A close reading of his statement shows that the point Mr. Gates was making was that the human capital development should have been explicitly indicated as part of the execution priorities of the ERGP.
There should not be a problem here. No one says running Nigeria is easy [of course all politicians promise during campaigns to have the magic wand]. Mr Udoma does not need to attack media here. He should pick the suggestions, go back to drawing boards and improve our national strategy.
When we cannot pay primary school teachers on time even when funding roads in the same states, any observer would see that as misguided [in some states, medical staff have not been paid for months]. Yet, govt has to do many things at the same time but keeping primary school kids at home is dangerous to our national competitiveness.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Gates was saying that we must have a better plan to ensure we pay teachers, doctors, and our public workers even as we fund capital projects like roads, airports, etc. We need both but those salaries are more important.
But it does not end with workers. About 96% of Nigerian businesses are SMEs while the MSME (micro, small and medium scale enterprises) sector employs over 59 million (84.02% of the total labour force). Agriculture takes more than 65% of working population. We must plan for those farmers and human capital in those MSMEs.
Bill Gates was saying what many people have been saying: Nigeria must invest in its people especially the youth. There should not be a disagreement there.
