Posts

Boulevard of broken dreams

Image
  Ade could have sworn he would not have a hard time finding a job after he finished with good grades. It has been over 5 years since Ade graduated from university and still he has not gotten a job. His parents have always stressed the importance of graduating with good grades as it gives you a high chance of success after school, and this made Ade work even harder on his studies. However, the harsh reality in the Nigerian labour market is that the completion of tertiary education serves as no guarantee for securing any meaningful employment. This has shattered Ade’s hopes for the future and gives him an overall feeling of frustration and unfulfillment. He is left with the option of learning a trade to make ends meet and even at that,  he doesn’t have the required capital to set up his ‘shoe making’ business. This story resonates with so many Nigerian graduates who have left school and had to settle for learning a trade or engage in commercial activities to make ends meet. It ...

Financial Inclusion: a tool for economic growth in Nigeria

Image
  Financial Inclusion is a driver of economic growth as it provides access to financial services through participation of every economic individual unit. Financial inclusion plays a major role in poverty reduction and empowerment. A huge number of Nigerian are unbanked and even lack access to formal financial services. Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) (2013) define financial inclusion as the provision of a broad range of high quality financial products such as savings, credit, insurance, payments and pensions, which are relevant, appropriate and affordable for the entire adult population especially the low income segments of the economy. The drive for Financial Inclusion is aimed at ensuring that all unbanked and disadvantage members of the economy have unlimited access to varying range of financial products to meet their needs and are rendered at affordable cost. According to Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access EFInA, (2012), research shows that 46.3...

6 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS SPEAK UP AGAINST INJUSTICE

Image
Often we experience issues that affect others and most times, we prefer to be passive since it does not affect us in any way. If truly humanity is all about being there for each other, why then do people tend to shy away from lending a voice to issues that affect other people or groups of people? Well, it can be argued that people tend to stay quiet in order to avoid conflicts, being seen as foolish, or mean. Nevertheless, is staying silent really worth it especially when something needs to be said?  Here are 6 reasons why you should learn to speak up: Silence means approval It might seem staying silent is your way of avoiding conflicts and unnecessary drama but then, you could be sending a wrong signal. Refusing to speak against injustice might translate to accepting the status quo. This makes you an enabler. Silence is also a means of communication. This shouldn’t discredit the importance of keeping silent, silence works best in moments of anger or you are unsure of what to say...

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT, BY THE GOVERNMENT AND FOR THE GOVERNMENT: The way out

It’s been two decades since Nigeria gained its independence after a lengthy influential military regime and Nigeria still, has not reaped the full dividends of democracy. The fundamental tenets of Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy juxtaposes the democratic practices in Nigeria. Over time, present and past government have place their political ambition and self-interest before the needs of the people which has resulted in high levels of corruption and dwindling of Nigeria’s economic resources leaving the country in a cesspool of poverty, dilapidated infrastructure, epileptic power supply, incessant insecurity, high youth unemployment rate, electoral fraud, marginalization, ethnic division, disregard for rule of law among several other challenges. Though most of the blame can be apportioned to the government, the citizens also have a significant share of the blame. The passive nature of most Nigerians encourage corrupt practices among politicians, I hope to elaborate on this s...