LAGOS/Nigeria: The Centre for Public Service Productivity and Development (CeProd) has attributed the spate of insecurity in the country on low productivity and unemployment.
A statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by the Director-General of CeProd, Dr Chris Egbu, quoted the President of the Centre, Prof. Sandeep Gupta, as saying this at the inauguration of four CeProd Committees.
The Committees are: Membership Committee; Education and Training Committee; Inter-governmental Relations and Publicity Committee; and Finance and Resources Development Committee.
According to Gupta, the constant hike in the prices of commodities induced by inflation, was largely due to the absence of the required innovation needed to create jobs and improve the country’s earnings.
Gupta said that 82.9 million Nigerians lived below N600 per day, despite being from a country reputed as Africa’s top crude oil exporter.
He said, “The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a report about poverty and inequality from Sept. 2018 to Oct. 2019, said 40 per cent of people in Nigeria live below its poverty line of N137,430 ($381.75) a year.
“This means that about 82.9 million people in Nigeria are living below 1.1 dollars per day or about N600 per day.
“Nigeria is the top oil exporter in Africa, which has helped to create wealth related to crude sales that account for more than half of government revenue.
“But, failure to imbibe the culture of productivity has hampered growth and the spread of wealth beyond a few rich elite.
” Rapid population growth also outstrips economic growth, which stands at about 2 per cent. The United Nations estimates that Nigeria will have a population of 400 million by 2050”, he said.
Gupta tasked members of the Committees to sensitize governments and Nigerians on the need to be more productive as a people and a nation.
“Unproductivity is a major cause of inflation, unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria.
“Therefore, as members of the CeProd Committees, you are called upon to make the necessary sacrifice to save the country from the consequences of unproductivity,” he said.
