Major Causes of Unemployment in Nigeria

April 18, 2020 Nicholas

Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world and the self-proclaimed giant of Africa. Beyond this lies poverty and massive unemployment ravaging the black nation. One begins to wonder what are the causes of unemployment in Nigeria since the country is blessed with so many natural resources and it’s an oil-producing nation.

In this post, we will share with you the causes of unemployment in Nigeria.

5 Causes of Employment in Nigeria

There are many factors leading to unemployment in Nigeria. The points below tackle the key ones.

Corruption

Nigeria is one of the most corrupt nations of the world. Corruption is embedded in the DNA of the average Nigerian and its leaders are utterly corrupt as well. The country has failed to develop and its leaders would rather embezzle public funds than build companies and infrastructure to reduce the rate of unemployment.

In most organizations in Nigeria, it’s about who you know before you are offered employment. People bribe to get jobs and it has become a norm in Nigeria. A Nigerian in position of power will love to have all the funds to himself and would rather not employ more hands to make the job smooth and progress.

Nepotism

Nepotism is the order of the day in Nigeria. A Nigerian in a position of power will rather employ the services of his unqualified family member than give the job to qualified personnel. This without doubt is one of the major causes of unemployment in Nigeria.

Go to any Nigerian organization and there is a 70% probability that some of those working in that organization are related one way or the other.

Lack of Skilled Labour

There are jobs sometimes but the available people are not skilled enough for the job. The world has gone past the time when all you had to have to get a job is your certificate, things have changed now. Apart from your certificate, what can you do or what do you have to offer? Employees want to know this.

Some job roles are technical and the people have failed to develop themselves or learn the required technical skills needed to get the job. Employees are not to be blamed in this case.

Lack of Quality Education

There are Nigerian graduates that cannot compose properly a sentence of English, some find it difficult to produce basic things like letter-writing, emails and many more. Nigerian graduates like this pass through the school but they’ve refused to allow the school pass through them. It is difficult for employers to employ this set of graduates.

The quality of education in some Nigeran institutions are poor and these platforms churn out half-baked graduates to the labour market. Only a few Nigerian Universities can boast of having proper lecture rooms and a state-of-the-art laboratory. It is no surprises we find it hard to see Nigerian universities among the best in the world.

Over-reliance on White Collar Jobs

The mentality of an average Nigerian graduate is to get a white-collar job and be wearing shirt and tie in the office. It’s like everyone is programmed like that and only few really think about starting something of their own and employing people.

Due to the population of the country, this leads to a high unemployment rate. There are only few jobs and thousands are vying for these roles.

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Wrapping Up

In conclusion, all the above-listed points are the major causes of unemployment in Nigeria. The total fault does not lie with the government and we all have a role to play.

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