Nigerians With Advanced Degrees But Without Jobs

Nigerians With Advanced Degrees But Without Jobs



4 years ago

~1.7 mins read
Beyond The Figures: Meet Nigerians with advanced degrees but without jobs

When Nigeria’s statistics bureau, NBS, said in its latest unemployment report that about half of the nation’s 76,562 doctorate degree holders within the labour force were either jobless or underemployed, it sent eyes popping and neck swivelling with surprise.

Hassan Ya’u, a doctor of mass communication at Bayero University, Kano, was one of the sceptics.

He believed that students who enrol in PhD programmes often have a certain level of financial stability before they do so, and only a job could guarantee that.

“The statistics that NBS released is worrying, and I am doubting the credibility of the research,” he said.
“Significant numbers of students with PhD in Nigeria are already employed before embarking on the course.”
But when Rasheed Adigun heard about the report, he simply smiled, because he had not worked since April despite bagging a PhD late last year. In fact, when last he worked, he was paid ₦48,000 for the month.

Four years of searching for a job without a breakthrough, after a first degree, led Mr Adigun to seek additional educational qualification by applying for masters at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, where he had finished with the best CGPA in the university (4.92 out of 5). Yet, no job came.

His feat as the best student nonetheless offered him a postgraduate scholarship at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where he specialised in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry.
Upon graduation, he returned to Nigeria to seek opportunities, but very little came his way. Then the nationwide coronavirus lockdown happened.

Since hand sanitisers were in high demand at the time, the chemist began to produce it, but demand struggled due to the lockdown.

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When the lockdown was eased, indifference towards the coronavirus ensured that demand for the product remained low.

“We are almost running at a loss now,” he said. “Now, people act like there is no longer (a) pandemic out there. They hardly buy.”
About 87 per cent of businesses in the country were negatively affected by the pandemic, a nationwide survey in April showed. Not less than four in every ten Nigerian who were working before the outbreak of coronavirus in the country lost their jobs due to the impact of COVID-19, NBS also said in April.
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