This is my own idea for how to catapult Nigeria into industrial status.

But it will not happen overnight.

Empowering our youth will achieve several aims at once.

Being proficient in basic skills will galvanize the SME industry by providing it with cheap labour

It will empower https://twitter.com/CitizenLadimeji/status/1253274601683070977

young people to be financially less dependent on their parents

It will empower a few of them to be business owners in their own right.

Most importantly, it gives the young people an asset that can be monetized for long term funding.

One of the pillars of the American financial

system is student loans

Another is mortgages

Both of these sources of long term investment are firmly backed by the govt

Please research Sallie Mae, Freddie Mac, & Ginnie Mae (all govt owned entities)

Banks can't invest in non-income generating assets

But with a certificate

of proficiency in a basic skill that shows you can earn money from that skill while in school, the govt can put in place policies to democratize college loans.

BVN and a certificate in a basic skill, with a plan showing how income generation can pay off interests and principal

over the long term, will make it easy to access a college loan, instead of the current dysfunctional blanket subsidy we now have in tertiary education.

Once the power of choice lies with students, and they are empowered to pay for quality education either in public or private

institutions,

competition will be introduced into the tertiary education space, especially when subsidy is removed & they truly become autonomous with the ability to charge whatever fees they deem appropriate

This is what will release our universities to unleash their potential

As it stands, our public universities are blinded with laziness because of the idea of subsidy and free govt money, the same way state govts are entrenched in central rent collection

There's absolutely no difference between the sense of entitlement in academics & in politicians

In fact, the biggest source of angst between ASUU and the govt is the relative disparity in entitlements between professors and senators.

It should be obvious where the problem lies.

Academics should be allowed to charge whatever they like as tertiary fees in exchange for

taking charge of their finances

Big universities such as ABU, OAU, UNN & UI, shouldn't pay their academics on the same level as smaller ones like, say, FUTA, or FUTMINNA, etc

They should also charge based on their competitive standing in the market

Unleashing our universities

will also unleash our local capacity to develop our economy with local innovation.

In summary, youth empowerment will galvanize the economy by

1. increasing the circulation of money,

2. transform individuals skills into bankable assets useable to pay for quality education

3. Introduce the scrapping of blanket subsidy and release the university system to be free to compete for student's fees.

4. Make the tertiary education system more accountable and globally competitive

5. Accelerate the development of our economy.