Foluso Phillips speaks on the future of Nigeria's economy

Speaking at a lecture organised by AIESEC Alumni in Nigeria, Chairman of Phillips Consulting Foluso Phillips has made a number of recommendations for Nigeria’s economy as it moves towards an expanding global role, including but not limited to the creation of job opportunities to avoid a possible brain drain.

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa by GDP, in addition to having the largest population in the continent. A promising economic indicator for the country is that a majority of this population is yet to enter the working age, which sets the country up to have an expansive workforce in the near future.

According to Foluso Phillips, there is little doubt about the promise of this scenario, although it also presents its share of dangers, which might stem from an inadequate education system in the country. The country has an imbalance in terms of access to education, with only a 30% rate of education in the North of the country as opposed to 80% in the South.

For those who are educated, Phillips warns that the current opportunities for employment fall far short of international standards, not only in terms of working conditions but also in terms of the level of technological integration that the business environment has witnessed.

“We are experiencing what a German referred to as a ‘youth bulge’, a situation where youth population rises geometrically with meaning job opportunities for them. We have one of the highest youth population in the world. This can be a blessing or a threat. High volume of unemployed youths poses threat to the nation as our young professionals are emigrating legally abroad,” explained Phillips.

“Our youths are seeking greener pastures and we are losing quality people, who are the real ones to build our nation. We must come up with a winning strategy; if not, there will problems in the next five years. We must tap into technology to grow our nation, deliberately measure competitiveness to attract investment, and define metrics for assessments and benchmarks.”

On the importance of technological integration, he added, “We are in the middle of a very violent disruption. It is the fourth industrial revolution. Artificial Intelligence is almost here and technology is bubbling with news tricks and changes daily.”

Phillips’ own firm Phillips Consulting is currently working on digitalisation efforts across the Nigerian banking sector, supporting global Fintech company Intellect Design Arena with the launch of its Contextual Banking Experience product in Nigeria. This is the second event in recent weeks that Phillips has been asked to speak at, given his status as a well-established figure in Nigeria’s consulting industry.