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Showing posts with label essays on Nigeria solutions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label essays on Nigeria solutions. Show all posts
Monday, April 15, 2024
Monday, January 15, 2024
how to solve it?
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Sunday, September 24, 2023
GovTech #GOVTECH GovTech
🏦 Explore the top 10 #GovTech #startups to watch in 2023 & learn how they enable transparent payment systems, public health decision support, AI-based city maintenance & more 👉 https://t.co/CraP60d61s@govmind_tech @us_abstract @PamojaAfya @alceba_ai @RaizitCom @urbanpinion
— StartUs Insights (@StartUsInsights) June 12, 2023
Simple and short introduction to GovTech using four examples.
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Tuesday, May 30, 2023
so long a weekend
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Sunday, March 07, 2021
BE. KNOW. DO.
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Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Corruption corrupts, and absolute corruption ... ?
(Source)
Corruption is universal, and Nigeria is a country universally acclaimed for corruption. In spite of all the rules and laws prohibiting corrupt practices, [corruption] continues to thrive under weak legal, political and administrative institutions; thereby exerting its penetrating influence on ordinary Nigerians who are trapped in a moral maze as they attempt to conduct their businesses. These Nigerians live their lives with all honesty and integrity, but are too often compelled to conform or be crushed.
The writer of the above piece, Lara Popoola, is a Contracts Negotiator with a degree in Law and Masters in Financial Regulations and Compliance. She enjoys reading and keeping up to date with political and social issues in Nigeria.
Source: Question For Every Nigerian… “How Corrupt Am I?”, published April 2016 on Bellanaija.com . As is often true of blog articles, the comments / reactions are varied and very interesting, for instance:
"fantastically corrupt" comment. Maybe we can change things?
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Corruption is universal, and Nigeria is a country universally acclaimed for corruption. In spite of all the rules and laws prohibiting corrupt practices, [corruption] continues to thrive under weak legal, political and administrative institutions; thereby exerting its penetrating influence on ordinary Nigerians who are trapped in a moral maze as they attempt to conduct their businesses. These Nigerians live their lives with all honesty and integrity, but are too often compelled to conform or be crushed.
 |
| Lara Popoola, Nigerian lawyer |
In light of the deteriorating state of
common affairs, it is only appropriate that I should note the deep chasm
of distrust and rising cynicism of many Nigerians, about the
credibility of the President’s recent anti-corruption battle against
some senior government officials and their associates accused of
misappropriating public funds. A corruption battle which has been highly
speculative and seriously debilitated, by a legal justice system that
is lethargic, fundamentally flawed and unfit for purpose.
While I strongly affirm the absolute
necessity to prosecute and penalise these “giants” of corruption, I am
also mindful of the fact that the government is just one of two hands
that claps to the beat of corruption. Hence, we must also address the
contribution and mindset of individuals to the existence of corruption
in Nigeria, if we are going to wage a successful war against it. The
customary condemnation of government and public officials for corruption
often authorises many Nigerians to assume the position of spectators
and commentators, thereby mitigating their individual participation.
They remain oblivious of the fact that corruption does not discriminate.
Rather, it acquaints itself with people
of all social pedigrees, ages, tribes, gender and political parties. It
has no regard for level of education or even religious affiliations; for
we know many have audaciously testified about the supposed ‘blessings’
of their ill-gotten gains. It is no wonder, that as Nigeria continues to
pay its legislators high salaries and stupendous allowances while
majority of the population lives in abject poverty and darkness. There
is an increased pressure on people to become wealthy in order to
alleviate their poverty.
Consequently, the courage to adhere to
high standards of propriety erodes away and morality declines as
individuals ask “why should I be the sole custodian of honesty and
integrity?” After all, an employee who is not earning a living wage and
is owed accrued salaries, without the assurance that he will have a job
tomorrow, might choose to supplement his income with bribes and other
corrupt means.
It is worth noting, that it is not just
the man who receives the bribe that is corrupt, but also the man who
offers it. Corruptive norms are so widespread, it is sometimes
inconceivable for many to comprehend how employing families and friends
of the boss rather than the best candidates for jobs perpetuates
corruption. Or “rubbing hands” with custom officials to allow the
importation and exportation of banned items; or parents using unorthodox
means to ensure the admission of their children to higher institutions;
or assuming it is acceptable to be dishonest in business dealings just
because “that is how it is done here”.
It is because of this prevailing warped
mentality, that individuals must not undermine their susceptibility to
corruption, for at various stages of life, one might be compelled to
confess “I was corrupt”, “I am corrupt” or “I will be corrupt”. This is
simply because corruption corrupts.
It is relentless and progressive in its efforts. There
was once a time when corruption and development co-existed on a
tolerable scale, and Nigeria was able to reap immediate benefits from
its natural resources. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. The
adverse impact of corruption on public and private life is obvious and
the country is confronted with a vicious cycle of lower investment and
growth, higher poverty and inequality, greater fiscal imbalance, and
weaker delivery of basic public services. How else does one rationalise
the 5th largest provider of crude oil in the world experiencing chronic fuel shortages?
In echo of the President, to conclude
that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria,
is as certain as the theorems of Pythagoras. It will continue to claim
thousands of lives on poorly constructed roads, many more will lose
their lives in hospitals because of inadequate healthcare facilities.
The dreams of many young people will die because money meant for better
educational system has been diverted into private pockets and many
senior citizens will continue to suffer as they struggle to receive
their pensions. Finally, hope will perish when poverty gains a
stronghold and misery is intensified.
This is not an attempt to indict every
Nigerian of corruption – that would be an unwarranted blanket
criminalisation. Rather, my aim is to intrude the thoughts of
individuals who unconsciously or through blissful ignorance live their
lives without considering their responsibility for corruption and its
powerful influence on their day to day living, with the hope to reform
our approach to citizenship by asking “how corrupt am I?” and then
proceed to actively challenge questionable norms that are detrimental to
our development as a nation.
The writer of the above piece, Lara Popoola, is a Contracts Negotiator with a degree in Law and Masters in Financial Regulations and Compliance. She enjoys reading and keeping up to date with political and social issues in Nigeria.
Source: Question For Every Nigerian… “How Corrupt Am I?”, published April 2016 on Bellanaija.com . As is often true of blog articles, the comments / reactions are varied and very interesting, for instance:
- This is thought provoking Lara crofty.
However, Our institutions and its machinery has been rigged to encourage furtherance of corrupt practices in the country. For example, I have being a victim of incomplete car registration. All the papers are well documented, but were not fully updated into their system (as i later found out). Hence on a particular instance, i was forced to part with N20,000.00 or loose my car to a set of Custom officer whose jurisdiction, or office is not known.
In such a case, if you stick to the law, honesty and due process, the unmarked car(without engraving of any kind) would have been stolen by the self-same people expected to protect it. or what do you reckon?
"fantastically corrupt" comment. Maybe we can change things?
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Wednesday, April 02, 2014
All about solutions...The Smallholder Foundation and Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu
NI: We at the SmallHolders Foundation believe that
education is critical – education is development for us. Education opens
the mind and motivates the quest for results. We believe that an
educated person will make a better choice, more than an uneducated
person. In that case we looked at the whole chain and we saw that one of
the things that kept farmers trapped in poverty was the inefficient
agricultural extension services. Agricultural extension services should
be a tool that organizations and government agencies can use to educate
farmers about new techniques, new crop varieties, new livestock, how to
control crop and livestock diseases. But this critical service does not
exist anymore.
So we decided that we have to establish a radio
station. In 2007, we established a smallholder farmer’s rural radio.
Today the radio station designs and broadcasts agriculture environment
and market information to 250.000 small farmer listeners, in the local
Ibo language, 10 hours a day. It teaches them how, when and where to
cultivate and for whom there are cultivating; how to rear livestock
properly and at the same time the market to sell livestock. For example,
we taught them how to gather rainwater during the abundant rainy season
to use for vegetable gardening in the dry season.
The radio station is also educating farmers how to
open bank accounts, the need for accurate record keeping and how they
can check their input and their output. I believe that by the time a
farmer decides to cultivate maize, he should make a simple budget, Every
morning the radio station gives farmers commodity prices from eighteen
regional markets so they decide which market to go to.
Read the full BMW Foundation interview with Nnaemeka, founder and executive director of the Smallholder Foundation here. In 2011, he was named Young Person of the Year at the Future Nigeria Awards.
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Business Process Outsourcing in India and related HR Challenges
Notes written by Ozodi ARIAHU and Aramide BELLO
India is a country of
complete contrasts – five star hotels surrounded by slums, white-collar workers
rushing past unskilled labourers using primitive technologies, new globally
branded cars navigating congested roads along with antiquated models, freeways
and flyovers that suddenly lead to unpaved, snarled roads and so on.
India Country data:
·
Three times the size of Nigeria, with triple the population
density
·
Economy ranked 12th largest in the world
·
From the 2011 census, 58.2% of the labour force is in agricultural
production (cultivators and labourers), 4 % in household industry
·
The remaining 37.6% would include both manufacturing industry and
service provision
The
Indian IT/ITeS/BPO Sector
The spread of the
internet, with cheap and abundant telecommunications bandwidth, has enabled businesses
to parcel out white-collar work to specialist outside suppliers, with countries
such as India emerging as important hubs for producing services for consumption
at the other end of the fibre-optic cable (Edwards, 2004). This type of work is classified under service
provision and termed the Information
Technology, Information Technology-Enabled Services, and Business Process
Outsourcing (IT/ITeS/BPO) sector.
IT services include
·
Systems integration and information systems consulting.
·
Application development and support as well as IT training
services.
IT-enabled Services (ITeS) include
·
Back-office data entry and processing.
·
Customer contact services (such as complaints, tele-marketing,
collections support).
·
Corporate support functions (such as HR, finance, procurement, IT
services).
·
Knowledge services and decision-support (such as customer
analytics, claims and risk
·
management and consultancy).
·
Research and development services.
Outsourcing is the practice in which companies move or contract out some or
all of their manufacturing or service operations to other companies that
specialize in those operations or to companies in other countries.
An example would be
an American jeans manufacturer that closes a factory in the United States and
hires a contractor in India to produce its jeans, which are then imported and
sold with the American company’s logo.
According to Forrester Research, nearly half a million computer hardware
and software jobs are expected to be outsourced from the United States to other
countries by the year 2015.
Corporate executives
say outsourcing helps their companies lower costs, increase profits, stay
competitive, and that they ultimately transfer cost savings to the consumer as
lower prices.
Currently, the BPO
sector appears poised on an unstable knife edge. It involves a young, highly educated
workforce conducting often routine work for which, in many cases, it is
patently over qualified. As a result, the explosive growth of BPO in India has
also given rise to startling attrition rates and working conditions that,
although perhaps (temporarily) acceptable in urban India may well
prove to be far short of employee aspirations.
A
brief history of Business Process Outsourcing in India
To most Indian
software companies, BPO came in handy in the face of the downturn in the IT industry.
Another stroke of luck for the industry was the cheap availability of abundant
and under-utilised fibre optic cables laid under the sea by western companies
during the e-commerce hype generated in the 1990s and their increasing
bandwidth capacity (Friedman, 2005).
While the Indian software
industry took more than 10 years to mature and climb up the value chain, the
Indian ITeS/BPO industry has taken just 5 years (between 2000 and 2005) to do
just that. Many of the top Indian software companies, namely; Infosys, Wipro
and Satyam, have now set up subsidiary companies such as Progeon,
Wipro BPO, and Nipuana, which are their
ITES arms.
Today, there are
around 3000 IT companies in India currently exporting to over 150 countries with
an employee base of around 700,000 and the top 5 Indian IT software
& service exporters are Tata
Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and HCL (Nasscom-c, 2005).
In line with this
growth, the ITeS/BPO/KPO industry now employs not only generic graduates, but
also MBAs, doctors, engineers and chartered accountants as process executives.
Even for Customer Service Representative jobs, which are relatively
low-skilled, the vast majority of employees are university graduates.
Apart from its sheer
size, India currently constitutes an intriguing part of the globalization story
for its pioneering of
what can be termed an Export Led Services Provision (ELSP) model. Today, anybody
who visits India will see that changes are everywhere and the country is well
and truly on the move.
Despite the
spectacular growth and visibility of the IT/ITES sector, it is still largely irrelevant
to the vast majority of Indians. Altogether, the combined IT/ITeS/BPO sector
employs under 1 million workers out of a total workforce (waged, salaried and
other) that is approaching half a billion
workers. Thus it is that despite the
tremendous success of IT and outsourcing in India, poverty persists with 35% of
all Indians living on less than one US dollar per day.
Labour
and Human Resource considerations
Although Indian IT/ITeS/BPO
workers are very inexpensive by Western standards, their salaries are high by
Indian standards. Currently, the sector
is devoid of trade unions, while existing unions appear to be unprepared to
enter the new economy. With respect to
changes in existing labour codes, a majority of the states have either promulgated
a government order or notification permitting all establishments in the
respective jurisdictions engaged in IT-enabled services (including call
centres) to: work on national holidays; allow women to work through night
shifts; and permit offices to function 24 hours a day, all through the year
(Nasscom-g, 2005), although such practices have traditionally been banned
through urban Shops and Establishment Acts.
The industry faces
skill shortages, but the question here is of quality, not quantity. While it is
estimated that approximately 17 million people will be available to the IT
industry by 2008 (Nasscom-j, 2005), the problem relates to their employability
and trainability. Jobs in IT minimally
require a tertiary degree in engineering, computer science or mathematics, while
call centre and data processing operations insist upon a Bachelors’ level
degree and high levels of proficiency in spoken and written English. Most Indians are not employable in the
sector, since literacy rates hover
around 65 per cent for the population as a whole and at 45% for females.
Attrition is the
biggest challenge currently facing the ITES/BPO sector. The ‘race for talent’
as one HR manager described it between BPO suppliers is fierce; the poaching of
workers has created much distrust among industry participants. Top five reasons
for turnover in the industry: dissatisfaction with salaries (47%), lack of
career opportunities (45%), leaving to pursue higher education (29%), illness
(28%) and physical strain (22%) (DQ-IDC, 2004).
Marriage and pursuing
higher education were frequently quoted as the main reasons for attrition. The
night shift work that most of the employees are engaged in causes them, particularly,
women, to leave this employment when they get married; hence, marriage is given
as the reason for attrition. To retain
those workers who would leave for higher education, some companies are
beginning to explore the possibility of providing scholarships, tuition reimbursement
and special arrangements with education institutions that would allow them to
offer courses in the workplace.
BPO companies may
feel squeezed for profits. Clients on
multi-year contracts with BPO providers expect costs to fall over the course of
the tender as the provider becomes more experienced and familiar with the
client’s products and markets. They also
face shortages in leadership and supervisory skills, particularly at the
team/project level.
Authors are undergraduate
students in Electrical Engineering at Bells University of Technology, Ogun
State. They prepared these notes under
my supervision for the course CEN 302: Introduction to ICT.
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Getting your family member that job that (s)he isn’t qualified for is reducing unemployment, not nepotism or corruption.
Looking the other way while your line manager keeps N30 million out of a pool of N60 million meant as bonus for the entire team is doing “oga things” and God will take us there someday, not corruption or malpractice.
The LAMATA bus guys who overload buses and collect cash instead of selling you tickets is him “eating where he works” not corruption.
Senators asking you why should they take Coaster buses in lieu of going to the same place in a convoy of 20 cars is met with “God will help us” instead of the due outrage.
Housing “Agents” and court and registry officials collecting money they cannot issue receipts for is not seen as corruption.
How much did you pay for your drivers’ license? I bet not the normal price.
Is purchase of black market petrol legal?
How much did you pay for your passport?
How much did you pay for your PHCN meter? All this is to say….everything is warped. Institutions and even the simplest processes are so tainted by corruption, and nothing is done by the rule book anymore. Is it possible to go back to when things were as they should be? Or should we work towards creating a new normal?