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Indigenous building and civil engineering construction company, Construction Kaiser is pounding pavements to provide pockets of jobs in Nigeria, whose working age population is Africa’s largest, at 174.2 million.
Nigeria’s working age population compares with Ethiopia’s 95.8 million, Egypt’s 71.7 million, Democratic Republic of Congo’s 66.9 million and Tanzania’s 51.3 million, BusinessDay data shows.
By 2035, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Nigeria’s working population (between 15 and 64 years old) will not only be the largest in Africa, but in the world. Yet job creation is growing at its slowest pace in at least four years according to statistical body, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), as the major oil exporter scuffles with its worst economic crisis since 1991.
As unemployment burgeons even as rapid urbanization beckons, Igbuan Okaisabor, CEO of Construction Kaiser thinks there is need for a deliberate strategy to increase local content in the Nigerian construction industry and reduce unemployment.
Construction, like manufacturing and agriculture, is generally regarded as one of the highest employers of labour in any economy. Accounting for almost 40 percent of jobs in ASEAN economies.
Construction Kaiser recently concluded a summer camp for teenagers titled “STEM-Construction can be fun!’, aimed at promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, which the company’s management argues is very important to encourage and prepare youngsters for the construction industry.
The children attended seminars on self realization, career counseling, the roles of the civil, electrical and mechanical engineers in construction, project management, quality management, procurement / logistics, quantity surveying, and interpreting construction drawings. This camp was free and targeted at underprivileged teenagers, especially girls, drawn from seven schools.
At the end of the one-week program, the percentage of students interested in pursuing engineering and construction careers, rose from 30 percent to 70 percent, the program officials said.
“This is intended to expose youth to construction at an early age and stimulate their interest to pursue construction related careers and ultimately to provide the much needed human capital in the Nigerian construction industry in the coming years,” Okaisabor said as he delivered a welcome address speech.
“Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is very important for job creation. We must advocate for and support transformative programs and conceptual learning opportunities for millions more students to experience creativity, problem solving, technical skills, adaptability, perseverance and critical thinking,” he added.
Construction contracted by 6.28 percent in real terms (year on year) in the Second Quarter of 2016, a decline of 12.69 percent from the rate recorded a year ago. Relative to the preceding quarter, there was also a decline of 0.91 percent.
Its contribution to total real GDP was 4.30 percent in the period, marginally lower than its contribution of 4.50 percent in the previous year, but higher than the contribution of 4.13 percent recorded in the preceding quarter.
Okaisabor argues that the construction industry plays a key role in satisfying a wide range of physical, economic and social needs and contributes to the fulfilment of various national and economic goals;
One of such goals is putting a lid to a burgeoning infrastructure deficit which the Institute of Appraisers and Cost Engineers (IA&CE) says would require about $2.9 trillion in investment over the next 30 years to quell.
“Are we going to continue to import construction services, with the resultant depletion of our foreign reserves thereby putting pressure on our Naira at the foreign exchange market as we are experiencing today? And are we going to continue to render our youths jobless by importing unemployment from other mature markets?” Okaisabor rhetorically asked.
Nigeria’s external reserves fell by 2.86 percent to $25.45 billion in the one month period to August 2016, according to data from the central bank, as petrodollars thinned out on account of low oil prices and production cuts.
Okaisabor affirmed that encouraging local content will go a long way in plugging foreign capital flight and allow for a better exchange rate.
Nigeria’s local currency, the naira, traded at N315/$ as at 12pm in Lagos Thursday, Bloomberg data shows.
The naira has plunged by almost half after monetary authorities threw in the towel on a hard currency peg on June 20, as it became impossible to defend the currency at the rate the external reserves had sunk.
Construction Kaiser Limited is a 23-year indigenous building and civil engineering construction company, with offices in Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja.
It has a social mindful arm called the Kaiser Foundation for Social Development (KFSD), whose formation is reflective of key issues they have observed and are committed to addressing.
The program was supported by M & E Kaiser, Arikair, Tastee Fried Chicken, PZ Cussons, Lafarge Nigeria, Peri Formwork & Scaffolding and Eleanor Thompson.
LOLADE AKINMURELE
