Unemployment has continued to rise as economic growth declined over the past couple of years. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the unemployment rate is 27.1 per cent while the rate of underemployment is 28.6 per cent. The situation is even critical for the youth demography as the unemployment rate for people aged 25 – 34 years stood at 30.7 per cent in Q3 2020. This means that the productive labour and skills of over half of the workforce are largely underutilized. This underutilization of labour, especially in the early stages of young people’s careers, can lower employment and earning prospects in the later stages of career development.
The job potential for the average Nigerian youth does not look promising presently. The Nigerian economy is still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, and growth is poised to be slow over the next couple of years. As a result, there will likely be a decline in job opportunities in almost all sectors of the economy, even in the informal sector. Also, many sectors are replacing human labour with cost-effective technology and automation. While this may mean job losses for many, increasing technology adoption holds great potentials in jobs provision for the youth.
Why Renewable Energy?
Compared to older people, younger people are more adept at using, handling and migrating to new technology. This transition presents opportunities for job creation in sectors that leverage technological innovation. Creating jobs in such sectors and associated growing sectors would contribute to the development of adequate digital infrastructure that young people can leverage for increased job opportunities. The renewable energy sector presents one of the best avenues for Nigeria’s youth today.
Across the world, the renewable energy sector is creating many skilled, middle-income, long-term jobs with the potentials to employ even more in developing countries. For example, in 2019, the United States solar industry employed 43 per cent of the Electric Power Generation sector’s workforce, more than the number employed by all traditional fossil fuels combined.
The government currently has a renewable energy centred vision 30:30:30, aiming to achieve a 90% electrification rate and a power generation capacity of 30,000MW with 30% coming from renewable energy sources by the year 2030. However, huge investments are needed in human capital development to empower the workforce with the adequate tools necessary to achieve this goal. By investing in renewable energy development, job creation opportunities are boundless. A survey by Power for All forecasts that the distributed renewable energy (DRE) sector would have created 76,000 direct new jobs in both the formal and informal sectors by 2023. Also, it is expected that the job implications for the indirect formal and informal sectors would eclipse those recorded directly.
The government needs to develop the appropriate macroeconomic framework, policies, and necessary infrastructure and human capital investments. Programs that target youth can prepare them for highly skilled positions that ensure higher income and assured career path and development down the line. Essentially, today’s solar installers could become tomorrow’s project developers.