In the third edition of its Nigeria Leadership Summit, which was themed ‘Entrepreneurial Nation,’ the Anabel Group spurred entrepreneurs in Africa’s largest economy to tackle the problem of job creation by engaging their entrepreneurial prowess.
“We strongly believe that entrepreneurship holds the key to job creation in Nigeria, so we will continue to push all the elements that the entrepreneur needs to be successful in Nigeria”, said Nicholas Okoye, president of the Anabel Group at the event.
“These elements include access to funding, skills and a bankable to business project,” he said further.
Highlighting the potential of entrepreneurship in Nigeria’s economy, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), shows that Nigeria’s informal economy consists of over 17 million businesses and enterprises, and contributes most significantly to job creation. It is pertinent to note that MSMEs account for 80 percent of the total number of enterprises in Nigeria, and up to 75 percent of the total employment base (employing 32.4 million Nigerians).
In addition, micro enterprises comprise 98 percent of all MSMEs in the country, whereas small and medium enterprises comprise 1 percent each. Although a large proportion of these enterprises will be classified under the formal sector, it is probable that an even larger proportion operate in the informal economy.
Between July 2012 and June 2014, 2.48 million jobs were created, with the informal economy contributing the most at 1.41 million (57%), the formal sector contributed 40 percent, and the public sector contributed 3 percent.
The Nigeria Leadership summit by the Anabel Group aimed to provide entrepreneurial solutions to Nigeria’s many pressing issues especially those that affect the younger generation of Nigerians.
The Anabel Group also unveiled two new platforms in line with its theme of the ‘entrepreneurial nation’ under its leadership summit.
Speakers at the Nigeria Leadership summit included Chike Mustapha Obi, CEO of AMCON, Alexander Chika Okafor, the CEO of Chicason Group. The Anabel Group invests in fields and platforms that serve to rebuild the nation and position its potentials as an investment destination. Though known to be a nation with immense potentials, Nigeria is riddled with lack of capacity among youths, and the larger working population.
“Many people work in the informal sector because they are unable to secure formal employment,” said an earlier report by Philips Consulting. Nigeria’s informal economy, which is a huge employer of labour, especially of those unable to gain employment in the formal sector, is estimated to be as large as 57.9 percent of rebased GDP (N50.8 trillion), by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Edozie Ifebi
