Nigerian tech entrepreneur, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, says Nigeria’s greatest asset is not crude oil or other natural resources but human capital.
The co-founder of unicorn companies Andela and Flutterwave spoke on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday.
According to him, ‘Japa’ is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria because talents are now being exported — both physically and digitally — without some of these talents leaving the shores of Nigeria. The migration phenomenon from Nigeria to the rest of the world is colloquially known as ‘Japa’ among young people in the country.
The tech guru said that despite the country’s economic hardship and skyrocketing inflation, many youths have shunned protests because they comfortably earn dollars and have their bills sorted.
Aggrieved youths had trooped to the streets in August for the #EndBadGovernance protests and in October for the #FearlessInOctober demonstrations against hunger and high energy costs. They demanded that the Bola Tinubu administration reinstate petrol subsidy and reverse the electricity tariff hike, which has seen energy costs more than quadruple in the last year.
However, Aboyeji said the current administration has no choice but to take those reforms. “What Tinubu has done right is to make energy prices what they actually are. It’s not about protesting. God bless the people protesting but Abuja does not have the solution,” he said.
He said Nigerians should be interested in solutions to sustainable prosperity through human capital development.
Aboyeji said, “We must rejig our educational system and orient it towards export. People talk about Japa as a bad thing but it is the best thing that has happened to this country.
“We can make more, everybody should be incentivised to make more. We should go back to the university and say those doctors we lost, how can we produce more and send them out because there are a lot of young people who would not have jobs if these Japa people did not Japa. And many more young people are waiting for more people to Japa so that they can get jobs.
“So, if we really care for people in this country and we are not all about ourselves, we should be encouraging Japa. If you have talents, everybody is looking for you because the global workforce is ageing and our workforce is maturing.
“There are some people in the digital world who will Japa without leaving the country. There is a two-tier economy in Nigeria: those who earn in dollars and those who earn in naira. We refuse to acknowledge those who earn in dollars but in any case, they are the ones holding up our economy.
“If you wonder why people have not taken to the streets and brought down the president like other countries, it’s because of those people earning in dollars, legitimately or illegitimately.”
Aboyeji said the government in collaboration with the people must “organise that market instead of ignoring it and pretending it doesn’t happen”.
‘Nigerians Have Been Wasteful’
The 33-year-old also said the petrol subsidy regime bred wasteful citizens who fritter away energy resources. He applauded the Bola Tinubu administration for abolishing the petrol subsidy regime and multiple forex rates.
Aboyeji said, “With energy cost, we are finally getting rid of a subsidy regime which means Nigerians have been extremely wasteful when it comes to their energy usage. We are a wasteful country; people put on lights; people drive SUVs like it is pure water.
“I am not a minister so I can say this very boldly. We are a wasteful society and now we are learning economics. It’s painful. Learning economics is not easy. I have apps in my house that are turning off my light. I am watching my bills per second on my phone. I’m thinking about changing my cars now because I can’t afford the gas-guzzling, it’s too much on me. I’m looking at changing my cars.”
He described the current economic situation of the country as a signal to the end of many empires and the beginning of new empires. According to him, it is an opportunity for the youths if they have the right perspectives on it. “20 years from now, we will not be talking about the Dangotes,” he said.
Aboyeji further said what Nigerians hitherto called prosperity was fuelling gargantuan amounts of debt and subsidy payments which he said was not sustainable.
He said, “Before now, what we called prosperity is fuelling incredible amount of debt and cheating our children because we are living in an unsustainable economy; an economy where 10 or 15 years ago, an entry-level of a bank could book a (flight) ticket to Paris. An economy where we weren’t paying the full price of energy and the government was subsidising consumption. That’s not sustainable.
“The minimum wage today is about $40 which means that a lot of jobs that our young people will not consider worth their time, especially in the digital economy, are now worth their time.
“Now, our exports are some of the cheapest in the world and it makes sense to produce in Nigeria even with the high cost of energy because labour is very cheap.”
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