Nigeria's declining output, inequitable education, unsustainable constituency projects and more
Is the Nigerian Economy really picking up steam or slowing down with the GDP Growth Rate in Q2 2021?
The Nigerian economy continued its recovery from the devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics show that the country’s total output grew from 0.51% in the first quarter of 2021 to 5.01% in the second quarter when output from the two quarters are compared with their equivalent quarters in 2020, that is, a year on year (y-o-y) comparison … Actually, the performance in the second quarter of this year (Q2 2021) is compared with that in the first quarter (Q1 2021), there is a drop in the real GDP by -0.79%, indicating a “slightly slower economic activity”, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. [Read more]
22% of Nigerian Youths aspire to become traders or business persons when they turn 30 years old: Policy implication for achieving SDGs
The twelfth round of the national longitudinal phone call survey reveals that 22% of young people aged 15 to 22 want to be traders or business owners when they reach 30. Compared to becoming a doctor, engineer, or tailor, this is the most commonly reported dream job. It is also the most common among various subgroups of youth, such as by sex or consumption quintile. What is the policy implication of this finding? [Read more]
How informal education can improve Nigeria’s unequal and inequitable educational quality
According to the twelfth round of the national longitudinal phone call survey, there is an increasing disparity between the average age at which urban and rural youths begin school or work. Youths from the poorest 20% of households started school at the age of 6.4 but began working around 12. Young people in the wealthiest 20% of households, on the other hand, began school at the age of four and did not begin working until they were nearly 18 years old. These discoveries are likely to be a stumbling block in Nigeria’s pursuit of an inclusive and equitable quality of education (SDG 4).[Read more]
65% of 2021 Constituency Projects are soft, unsustainable projects
As the federal executive arm through its ministries, departments and agencies prepares the 2022 budget, Dataphyte analysed the 2021 zonal intervention projects (ZIPs) to assess the viability of the ZIPs and to use the outcome to demand reforms or a total scrap of the ZIP as an appendage budget to the country’s fiscal document. Despite the substantial budgetary commitments to the projects, various social accountability initiatives including Tracka, UDEME, Follow the Money, Budeshi, and Constrack has reported myriads of untraceable projects, abandoned projects, uncompleted projects, poorly implemented projects, and so on. [Read more]