The ravaging aftermaths of the coronavirus pandemic remains an issue that bothers the mind. Not only has the pandemic overwhelmed the health sector, other sectors of the economies of the world are held aback.
With businesses operating skeletally and market activities dropping to the barest minimum, one can only imaging the fate of the categories of workers in the skill, trade and vocational sector whose survival is hinged on their daily work and who have been handicapped and made unproductive by the pandemic and the rules that come with containing its spread. The multiplier effect of all this is even worse on the economy of countries of the world. How then does a country like Nigeria get the economy back to its feet?
Concerned about getting the Nigerian economy back to shape through the country’s workforce composed largely of artisans, Builder Anthony Okwa, the Managing Director of C-STEMP, has said there remains a light at the end of the tunnel for the country’s economy if focus could be shifted to capacity building and development on the part of the workforce.
Okwa who is also the Convener of the Construction Artisans Awards, spoke as the moderator during a webinar recently organized by C-STEMP and hosted by HDAN with the theme, “Covid-19: Stimulating the Economy and Employment in the Wake of the Global Pandemic”, explaining that the unemployment rate in the country will witness increase as the effects of the pandemic lingers on, and there is the need for stakeholders to come together in charting a course going forward.
“The impact of the pandemic on the economy is such that several sectors have been shut down. For us at C-STEMP, an organisation dedicated towards addressing the issue of unemployment by providing skills to young persons in order to enable them fit into various economic activities particularly in the construction sector, just when we were beginning to think we have started scratching the surface, we found ourselves having to slide down rapidly formation has been tremendous.
“From what we will say is at 30% unemployment rate we now have a situation that is hovering around 70% and therefore we felt it is necessary for us to come together our with partners and stakeholders as well as other interested persons to share experiences and to look at the way forward.” he said.
On his part, the Chairman, Board of C-STEMP, Surv. Ugochukwu Chime, who was the convene of the webinar, stressed that the pandemic presents an opportunity for Nigeria to look at the construction sector and refocus on the enormous potentials of the sector in reviving the economy.
He said “For us at C-STEMP, this is an opportunity to bring once more to the forefront the need for us to look at the construction industry which has the quickest impact in terms of value for employment and impact on the social economic sphere of any country.
“C-STEMP has been at the forefront of developing this idea of mobile training making sure that we train people where they are domesticating some of the best international practices to ensure that we are able to move forward”
The Director General, Abuja chamber of commerce, Mrs Victoria Akai, who spoke on the impact of the pandemic on global and domestic economy, explained that although there are lots of challenges confronting various sectors in the country, there are however opportunities that need to be judiciously harnessed in stimulating the economy.
She stated that “The Nigerian economy before covid-19 was fragile, GDP rate was estimated at 2 percent, decline in tourism, global demand for oil has dropped. The consequences of the pandemic and its measures have cost countries to change the way we do things forever. It has completely changed the way we live, work and do business. And I think there-in lies opportunities.
“We really need to look inwards and diversify our economy we need to look at agriculture, manufacturing solid minerals, construction really need to diversify to cater for our own domestic economy. We need to use this opportunity to take things online and reduce human to human interaction.”
Commenting as a panellist, Engr. ADK Muhammad, Director Vocational technical and skills development, NBTE, stated that changes occasioned by the pandemic must reflect on vocation and skill acquisition, adding that “all cognitive training must be online, all curricular must be revised to incorporate covid related system”.
Speaking from the international viewpoint, the CEO, CITBN NI, Barry Neilson, pointed out the need to incorporating online trainings into skills acquisition, while also noting that there are however skills that cannot be taught online,
Meanwhile, the Vice Chairman of CORBON, Dr S.A Opaluwah, emphasized the need for the construction industry to adapt to the new norm, stating that “project management will change, method of construction will change, and the supply chain management will have hiccups, and will affect how we run construction sites”
He also added that artisans, may have to be compelled to observe strictly, the measures for preventing the spread of the virus before they can go ahead with their work each day, as part of measure to restore normalcy to the state of things in the housing and construction sector.