UNILAG don urges Tinubu to anchor “Renewed Hope Agenda” on innovation

The Director, Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre (ESDC) of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Sunday Adebisi, has urged President Bola Tinubu to re-focus his “Renewed Hope” agenda to stimulate and drive innovation.

This, he said, would not only make Nigeria to surmount the challenge of unemployment among several national developmental issues, “it will in turn, engender the creation of a New Enterprise Nigeria where the prospect of the nation’s teeming youthful population is guaranteed”.

Professor Adebisi stated this while delivering the First Special Annual Lecture of Dr. Mike Adenuga (Jnr) Professorial Chair in Entrepreneurship Studies on “Revolutionizing the Nigerian Economy to Create Jobs and Sustainable Wealth: the Sole Ladder, the Sole Option, the Sole Platform” on Tuesday, at the J.F. Ade Ajayi (Main) Auditorium of UNILAG.

Professor Adebisi, who is the First Occupier Professor of the Dr. Mike Adenuga (Jnr) Professorial Chair, challenged the Federal Government to commit to promoting and building a knowledge-based economy which thrives on the pillar of innovation.

The Professor of Entrepreneurship, Hub and Strategic Management in the Department of Business Administration of UNILAG queried the methodologies of the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which puts the national unemployment rate at 4.1 per cent as against the 2020 report which stood at 33 per cent.

He also faulted the 92.6 per cent informal employment statistics and the 75.4 per cent allocated to those in farming and other little business in the same NBS data, record which he described as outrageous and capable of distracting the government from paying the desired attention to job creation.

Prof Adebisi also raised concerns over the rate and ravaging impact of job loss, brain-drain and the generational gap between those he called Gen-Baby Boomers (i.e. 1946- 1964), Gen-X (i.e. 1965-1979), Gen-Y (1981-1996) and Gen-Z (i.e. 1997-2021).

The highly innovative don decried the continued rise in the country’s inflation rate, the sustained assault on the nation’s currency and upward trend in the number of youths exiting the country for greener pastures abroad, a development, he said, is fuelled by failed promises, dashed hopes, poor change management system, irresponsible leadership, dysfunctional policies, outright disregard for citizens’ feelings and government’s inability to live up to its billings to the people.

On the possible ways out of the quagmire, he advocated the need for individual states in Nigeria to harness their innate strength with a view to creating an Enterprise Innovation Hub that will propel wealth-creation job opportunities, wipe out unemployment, create decent jobs within the value chains and eradicate poverty.

Adebisi also solicited a paradigm shift in the thinking and approach of the federal, state and local governments to job creation, with a view to promoting a new economic sphere where citizens can productively explore entrepreneurial capabilities in taking advantage of innovation opportunities that create wealth and enhances their standard of living.

He identified youths especially the Gen-Y and Gen-Z who accounts for over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s population as Nigeria’s hope and change agents, hence the need for them to be wary of the globalization agenda, the neo-liberalization policies of the West as well as the current free global market which is being used to lure them out of their fatherland.

He charged government at all levels to democratize entrepreneurship knowledge, formulate and implement policies which would guarantee unhindered access to entrepreneurial financing, support ease of market entry and ensure conversion of innovations to enterprises.

He also urged states and local governments, private companies and individuals to take advantage of the African Continental Trade Area (AfCTA) by increasing their investments and commitment to producing commodities that are fit for markets beyond the Nigerian shores.

Earlier in their remarks, Chairman of the Lecture, Dr Olutoyin Okeowo (Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of Ajayi Crowther University) and the Special Guest of Honour, Otunba Abimbola Ashiru (Chairman, Odu’a Investment Company Ltd.) lauded the commitmen of Prof. Sunday Adebisi in creating the right environment for entrepreneurship and enterprise to thrive.

Both Okeowo and Ashiru emphasized the need for greater collaborations between the town and the gown towards unlocking the potentials of SMEs as well as supporting young entrepreneurs.

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