Jonathan, Return of Barclays and the Graduate Internship Scheme
If there is one area the Jonathan administration has performed exceptionally well in the last four years, it is in the area of Foreign Direct Investment. According to a recent World Bank data, the Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria, in just the first six months of 2014 stood at $9.7 billion. This is a sign of global confidence in his administration. The FDI are still rolling in. Just this week, the Barclays Africa Group applied to the CBN for a banking license. The bank has been increasing its presence in Lagos in anticipation of the approval from the CBN. Barclays Africa has an ongoing strategy to expand its footprint in Nigeria and has formally engaged the authorities in Nigeria for license because of its confidence in the Nigerian economy. Under the Jonathan administration, the investment banking unit of FirstRand Limited, Africa’s biggest bank, also obtained operating license in Nigeria. Recently, Atlas Mara, the African investment vehicle of former Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, increased its stake in Union Bank of Nigeria having acquired a 20.9 per cent stake in UBN from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
Apart from good government, reports on the Nigerian economy in the global market have been very encouraging. These are responsible for the growth of FDI. The country’s economy is expected to expand by 4.8 per cent this year, more than twice as fast as South Africa’s projected 2.1 per cent, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Barclays’ re-entry into the Nigerian economy confirms analysts’ forecasts that activities in the merchant banking segment of the financial market would increase this year, as the market anticipates the entrance of more players in the sub-sector. This is also expected to support corporate and trade financing in the country which have expanded greatly under the Jonathan administration.
Obviously, these new firms setting up shops in Nigeria are creating thousands of new jobs for our growing population. The Jonathan administration has also intervened directly in the area of job creation for Nigerian youths. One of such models is the SURE-P Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), created to provide quality temporary work experience to Nigerian graduates to make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market as well as boosting their chances for self-employment. This component creates opportunities for the recruitment, training and deployment of unemployed, unskilled, vulnerable youth from all local governments in the country. It also provides income opportunities for the poor. The direct youth employment intervention targets large numbers of unemployed youth from the poorest populations in each state of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Federal Ministry of Finance in collaboration with SURE-P has through GIS provided employment for over 6000 since the commencement of the scheme. About 240 graduates in Niger State recently celebrated being part of the GIS. The graduates, who were linked with interested firms in need of staff members in Niger State would be paid N30,000 monthly by SURE-P while the firms do not have to pay the interns. GIS provides young graduates with one-year temporary work experience to make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market as well as boosting their chances of being self-employed.
The Jonathan administration is indeed aware of the fact that manpower development is critical for the attainment of the national vision 20:2020. This is why GIS aims to enhance the employability of at least 50,000 unemployed graduates in the 36 states of the federation and in the FCT by improving their skills through work placement.
The graduate internship opportunities is the first to hold in Nigeria, providing a platform for the reduction of vulnerability among unemployed Nigeria graduate for them to find direction for their lives either through jobs or entrepreneurship. Other efforts that the GIS is using to drastically reduce unemployment include strategic partnership in the area of export training, creative industries, environment, financial inclusion, agriculture, education and ICT.
Education is central to the development of any country and any govern- ment interested in development must take this sector seriously. Countries that have attained a high level of development the world over owe their success stories to the development of education at all levels. For our great nation to join the league of developed nations, we must put our education sector on a sound pedestal. No doubt, the Goodluck Jonathan administration has in the last three years shown great commitment to the development of this critical sector. The impression created during the last strike by the Academic Staff Union of University was that all was bad with the sector. This is far from the truth. In the last three years, huge successes have been recorded from primary to tertiary level. In fact, the administration decided to directly intervene at all levels. The results have been very encouraging.
In the last three years, 12 new federal universities were established across the country to ensure greater access to University education. Three of such new federal universities were in 2013 established in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State; Gusau, Zamfara State and Gashua, Yobe State.
The need to create more universities is obvious. Only about 10 per cent of school leavers get admission every year into higher institutions nationwide. About 1.3 million Nigerian school leavers seeking admission into higher institutions every year compete for less than 200,000 available openings in the existing institutions. So far, all the new federal universities approved in 2012 have since taken off. This is clearly an attempt by the Jonathan administration to redress educational challenges at all tiers in the country, from almajiri schools to post-primary institutions.
Many are surprised by the level of development of the new federal universities. Already, they all boast of quality infrastructure. Jonathan recently went to Federal University, Otuoke to confirm things for himself. The president in his response to the students noted that like them, he was a pioneer student at the University of Port Harcourt and understood their concerns. He however stated that the facilities he had seen around were much better than what he had as a pioneer student. The administration has also expanded the National Open University System which now has 50 study centres across the country. It has also expanded programmes in existing universities to increase carrying capacity.
Other achievements in the tertiary education sector was the training of 6,000 academic and non-academic staff; establishment of 76 national and international research and teaching partnerships; refurbishment of 162 laboratories in tertiary institutions and research institutes; rehabilitation of the laboratories of 51 federal and state Polytechnics; construction of microteaching laboratories in 58 federal and state colleges of education; development of infrastructure through the TETFund High Impact Fund; staff development Programmes up to doctoral level for 7,425 lecturers in tertiary institutions by TETFund since 2011 and sponsorship of 13,351 lecturers in tertiary institutions for local and international conferences.
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Terfund) which was established by the Jonathan administration in 2011 was last year re-invigorated to accelerate infrastructural developments in tertiary institutions across the nation. The allocation to tertiary institution in 2013 by Terfund ran into billion of naira. Universities got N646 million each; Polytechnics got N443 million each while colleges of education got N390 million each.
In the area of basic education, UBEC grants running into billions of naira were made available to states to build new schools. A number of positive UBEC programmes are also being implemented across the nation. These include the Almajiri Education Programme, the Girl-child education programme, the Back–to–school programme for out-of-school boys and the Nomadic Education Programme. As a result, Basic Education enrollment increased from 2,297,257 in 2012 to 2,994,734 in 2013. 89 almajiri schools were built across the country in 2013 and furnished, most of which have been handed over to the state governments. This has provided access to over 7,000 pupils. The number of Nomadic schools increased from 500 as at 2009 to 3,060 by 2013 with an enrolment figure of 57,000 nationwide.
For the Girl-child education programme, six model girls’ junior secondary schools were completed in 2013. This brings the total number of completed girls’ junior secondary schools to 11 out of the 13 under construction. This has greatly helped to increase access to education for girls in many states. There is also the Backto-School Programme for Boy-Child in the South. Construction of boy-child schools have commenced in many states across the country. Over 10,000 new classrooms have been constructed through UBEC Intervention funds with over 500,000 pupils’ furniture provided. 104,780 teachers were also trained through UBEC while 25,093,917 textbooks were distributed free to primary 1-3 and junior secondary school students across the nation. Under the UBEC programme, matching grant allocations to states in 2013 amounted to N38.5 billion. This is N7 billion more than what it was in 2012. Grant for Almajiri Education Programme in 2013 was N2.135billion; Girl-Child Education Intervention got N1.06 billion while JSS Library Projects got N3.813 billion
In the unity schools, there has been a continuous development of infrastructure with the construction of 73 new e-libraries to promote quality education outcome and phased rehabilitation of infrastructure across all colleges. The colleges are drawing from Special Intervention Funds to accelerate rehabilitation of infrastructure and provision of instructional resources. This has resulted in the development and rehabilitation science and technical facilities in all unity colleges.
In the area of scholarships to enable Nigerian student experience education abroad, 113 Bilateral Education Agreement Scholarships were awarded to Nigerians in 2013. Last year, Ten Nigerian universities were selected under the African Centres of Excellence Programme. This is clearly an indication that things are not as bad in our universities as some Nigerians think.
If you look at the period between 2010 and 2013, you would see clearly how the Federal Government has made an improvement in funding for the sector. We have never had it so good. The provision of quality education is the focus of Jonathan’s four-year strategic plan for the education sector. His administration spends about N9 billion annually on the procurement of books for basic education.
Okon a public affairs analyst writes from Abuja