President of the Centre for Public Service Productivity and Development, Professor Sandeep Gupta, has attributed the spate of insecurity and prevalence of unemployment in Nigeria to very low levels of productivity.
Professor Gupta made this known over the weekend in a speech delivered to formally inaugurate four CeProd Committees.
They are: Membership Committee; Education and Training Committee; Intergovernmental Relations and Publicity Committee; and Finance and Resources Development Committee.
According to him, the constant hike in the price of commodities occasioned by inflation was largely due to the absence of the required innovation needed to create jobs and improve the country’s earnings.
Citing a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, Gupta said 82.9 million Nigerians live below N600 per day, despite being from a country reputed as Africa’s top exporter of crude oil.
He said, “The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a report about poverty and inequality from September 2018 to October 2019, said 40% of people in the continent’s most populous country, Nigeria live below its poverty line of 137,430 nairas ($381.75) a year.
“This means that about 82.9 million people in Nigeria are living below $1.1 per day or about #600 per day.
“Nigeria is the top oil exporter in Africa, which has helped to create wealth related to crude sales that account for more than half of government revenue.
“But failure to imbibe the culture of productivity has hampered growth and the spread of wealth beyond a few rich elites.
“Rapid population growth outstrips economic growth, which stands at about 2%. The United Nations estimates that Nigeria will have a population of 400 million by 2050.”
Professor Gupta, therefore, challenged members of the Committees to undertake prompt action to sensitize both government and the general populace on the need to be more productive as a people and nation.
“Unproductivity is a major cause of inflation, unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria.
“Therefore, as a member of the CeProd Committee, you are called upon to make the necessary sacrifice to save the country from the consequences of unproductivity”, he said.
The Centre for Public Service Productivity and Development is the first World Class Productivity Centre in Africa established to complement the effort of government and international agencies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Asia Productivity Organization (APO), European Association of National Productivity Centre (EANPC), and Pan African Productivity Association (PAPA).
