Foluso Ogunmodede (PRO)
Following consistent rise in unemployment rate in the country from 5.0% to 13.8%, a university law teacher, Prof. Kolapo Omidire has canvassed entrepreneurship as panacea for the growing number of unemployed youths.
Besides, he said there was the need for fiscal and monetary authorities to work with financial institutions to develop a viable secondary mortgage market supported by appropriate regulatory and legal frameworks if the government must tackle unemployment head-on.
According to him, the ratio of mortgage loans and advances to Nigeria’s GDP at 0.5% which was one of the lowest globally, required upgrading as it had potential to facilitate “securitization and transfer of assets created by banks and PMIs to other investors who can make long-term investments, thereby freeing resources to operators to originate new loans.”
Professor Omidire of the Faculty of Law, Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Ekiti State, Nigeria, said the federal government must embrace entrepreneurship as a practical way to curb the growing unemployment especially among the educated youths.
The professor of law, who delivered FUOYE 17th Inaugural Lecture entitled “Prospect For the Law in Resolving the Challenges of Retail Banking in Nigeria,” said the federal government must address a series of challenges bedeviling retail banks should it consider entrepreneurship as one of the procedures and measures to revamp the nation’s battered economy.
Specifically, Prof. Omidire urged the federal government to address retail banks by positioning it to provide capital so as to drive the economy.
Although he admitted that there were challenges inhibiting seamless lending to retail customers of banks, Prof. Kolapo said it was time government at all levels devised appropriate solutions that would rescue the economy from the woods.
This, according to him would boost the economy if credits were made available to the nation’s unemployed educated youths to engage in small scale businesses.
While referencing to what he described as “inalienable human rights enabling all persons to enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development thereby guaranteeing the realisation of all human rights and fundamental freedom,” Prof. Omidire insisted that law would only achieve desired objectives of facilitating development if government ensure it reflects “peculiarities and multiplicity” of culture of Nigerians.
Also, he said that even though investment was required to finance development, meaningful investment would enhance productivity through a competitive market which would inturn create employment, increase wages and earnings.
Embracing entrepreneurship, Prof. Omidire said this would not only create employment opportunities, eliminate poverty but also fast-track economic growth with functional legal frameworks, saying only a functional legal frameworks were capable of supporting lenders to collect loans.
Prof. Omidire said:”If Nigeria is to take advantages of the benefits which the provision of credits to individuals and MSMEs afford the economy, the challenges making lending difficult to retail customers of banks must be addressed.
“Accordingly, a practical way to curtail the growing unemployment especially for the educated youths is through entrepreneurship. But entrepreneurship requires capital which retail banks are better positioned to provide.
“For the law to achieve the desired objectives of facilitating development in Nigeria it must reflect to a large degree, the extent of education of the people, the peculiarities and the multiplicity of the culture pervading the society as well as the institutions developed within the context of those variables.”
photo credit : Dele Adesunloye
