From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has called on both public and private sector stakeholders to prioritise human capital development, adding that it is a critical step in addressing the challenges of brain drain and unemployment in Nigeria.
The Chairperson NES 29 Central Organisng Committee, Amina Maina stated this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, yesterday.
Maina stressed that this year’s Summit seeks to galvanise bold ideas from the public and private sectors to keep the youth productive and minimise the brain drain affecting the economy.
The Think Tank, whose 29th summit (NES 29) scheduled to hold from 23 -24 October 2023 will explore the subject as a sub-theme, observed that the emigration of highly skilled professionals deprives Nigeria of valuable human capital assets, while high levels of youth unemployment hinder the utilisation of human capital, thus ultimately contributing to economic underperformance.
She said: “Wherever you go around the world, you hear that the best people – whether in education, healthcare, the financial industry or even in infrastructure, are Nigerians. We must find a way to keep and retain our best brains in-country.
“We hope that at NES 29, the private sector community will be able to give us bold ideas, which will be a way of turning things around. From the public sector side, we hope to find a synergy that brings the public and private sectors together to help us reduce our unemployment rate, ensure our youths are gainfully employed and have something to look forward to. We desire to use the human capital we are blessed with to put Nigeria back on the trajectory where it should be. We should be able to take our place amongst the comity of nations because we do have the best and brightest, and with the right system, we can retain them back home.”
Recently, the NESG announced it will anchor its 29th Summit on ‘Pathways for Sustainable Economic Transformation and Inclusion’, in light of the urgency of translating economic growth into improved and sustainable living standards for all citizens.
This year’s summit theme hints at Nigeria’s potential for sustainable development, leveraging innovative policies, robust institutions, strategic infrastructural investments, and human capital development.