Analysts have repeatedly warned that Nigeria’s oil reserves will, at best, last for another 50 years. This is definitely a warning sign that the future of our dear nation, with a population growth rate that many say is unsustainable, might be bleak if we do not engage in proper planning.
Besides our oil drying up, we’re already witnessing a world of disruption fuelled by technology. Elon Musk has made it a life time ambition to drive down the cost of his Tesla model of electric cars. Even at the seeming high cost of that model of cars today, they are multiplying in numbers across the streets of North America and he has announced a rather unexpected plan to move into India, one of Nigeria’s biggest oil customers. This is surely enough reason for us to start thinking knowledge economy rather than investing government money to find more oil wells.
Let me use this opportunity to state that since there has been no transformation of the Nigerian state despite all the billions of dollars earned from oil, I am convinced that oil is rather a curse than a blessing to Nigeria. If you ask me, I believe the knowledge economy might turn out to be the blessing the Nigerian state longs for.
In a recent report by The Punch, a former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, was quoted as saying, “A knowledge-based economy will guarantee speedy technological advancement in Nigeria. The key drivers of advanced economies are knowledge and innovation, rather than natural resources and educational development is the most important aspect of all human development. There are countries that do not have natural resources whatsoever, but because they have developed their human resources, today, they are the leading countries in this world.”
This simply sums up the fulcrum of this piece and it is, indeed, a wakeup call. Recently, I joined a number of top executives at the ‘think breakfast series’, (tbs), a quarterly breakfast gathering of executives to discuss issues of national and industry interest. I will share some of the thoughts, ideas and opinions that came out of that meeting on how Nigeria could position for the knowledge-led economy.
Ayotunde Coker, who is the Managing Director, Rack Centre, delivered a well-researched presentation on ‘The challenges & importance of building a knowledge-led economy through ICT’ in which he stressed that our growing population size and median age of 18 is a huge advantage, but what needs to happen next is for government and the private sector to build critical IT infrastructure such as world-class data centres, which will serve as solid foundation towards — Finish Reading on the Punch Website
