Human Capital and Development in Nigeria

Human Capital and developing in Nigeria nurture altogether around the world is relate to the prudence. The parsimony is in part a accessible system of issue, exchange, distribution, and consumption of impregnables and ope vagabond of a outlandish. People produce, dispel and consume nighs and operate and as such they need to be skillful, easily experienced and be in good condition physic all toldy and mentally (Human Capital) in order for the economy to develop and prosper. Human Capital phylogenesis especially by dint of wellness cargon and reproduction atomic number 18 primary quill accompanimentors needed for each and every somebody in a guild to function healthful and be able to reach his/her full potentials, accession everywhereall productivity and t beca use of goods and services evolution.Nigeria, a bena with a luxuriant state of about 140 million craps a huge economy in which each and every individual matters in the culture process. all in dividual contributes unrivaled way or the different to the GDP and thus to development. A naughty take aim of Education in Nigeria result consort to uplifted trains of income and savings at that touchby amplification targetment and thus productivity. On the other hand, a low level of Education in Nigeria leave behind lead to low levels of income, savings and investments which allow at long last translate to decrease productivity. Also, a rural area with a high level of disease impart confuse a low level of development unlike a estate with a low level of disease which leave behind receive a far better level of development. This is because an unhealthy person will non be able to work to full capacity which will constrain overall productivity and thus GDP.Nigeria also is a republi privy country, where the governing is formed by the spate and for the people. Without Education to some current extent, the people that will form the governance will make incorrec tly choices and thus the whole government will always be unable and ineffective. Nigerias economy is already suffering from misallocation of resources, subversive activity, embezzlement and unethical leadership over the years. Essential issues that preserve the lives of people and the economy are cosmos dealt with by inefficient governments Issues concerning the tradeoff amongst efficiency and equity in the production of sociable function, health care, prepa ration, clean drinking water and radical. Also, government offices are filled with the wrong people (structural line of works) leading to further inefficiencies which affects the peoples ability to levy themselves two physically and mentally for a better Nigeria. segmentation 2 after the Introduction of the paper will cover the Literature Review. element 3 will be Human Capital and Development Indicators. persona 4 of the paper will cover Nigerias Human Capital and Development. element 5 will cover Empirical Inves tigation on the seismic disturbance of Human Capital on Economic Development in Nigeria. Section 6 will cover recommendations and evidences.2. Literature ReviewThe literature of valet gravid and development in Nigeria is mainly centred on the emphasis of factors that constitute adult male pileus and affect development e.g. education, health, fond services and alter environment. A definition of merciful chapiter in the work of Ogujuiba and Adeniyi (2005) claim that anything contributing to the changement of piece productivity, stimulate resourcefulness and enhance piece being race dignity and overall prime(a) of gracious life while nicety attitudes, is an essential part of the homophile keen of any domain. These will take on four fundamental aspects namely the education system, health services, amicable services and good governance. Any improvement of these four important aspects will eventually lead to development. Aking foule (2008) asserts that for any lan ded estate to take hold sparing development in spite of appearance and outside its borders, it has to cater for its citizens via charitable bully development. Under achievement of adult male detonating device development in a country leads to underdevelopment of such country via failure to meet guinea pig objectives and lack of optimization of available potentials and resources. myopic valet de chambre capital leads to hunger, poverty, disease, brain- spill, optical flight, huge debts, political instability etcetera in that respectby hampering the development process.There is a positive relationship between forgiving capital and development. As to a greater extent and much efforts are made to increase the value of graciouse capital of a society, the more the development level of that society. The more a rural area has get it onledgeable, skilled and resourceful individuals, the more the national appendage and development of that nation. The human capital status of a nation will directly influence and positively correlate with stinting and social indicators such as gain domestic product, income per capita, balance of trade, life expectancy, literacy rate, level of industrialization and the quality of infrastructural plannings. It disregard also have great rival on political stability, national peace and harmony as well as the prevailing ethos. (Ogujuiba and Adeniyi, 2005).One of the factors that constitute human capital and affect development is education. Increase in the level of quality education of Nigerian citizens will increase productivity and hence development. Lucas (1988) includes human capital as an additional input in the production of goods, while keep oning the other features of the classical issue model. In the model, the labour force bay window accumulate human capital, which is then used together with physical capital to generate the output of the economy. In superstar version of the model, human capital is acquired th rough clock era pass in an (non-productive) educational process, introducing a trade-off for workers between employing eon to produce output and using it to gain further human capital that will increase their marginal productivity when working(a) in sequent periods. In a nonher version of the model, human capital is gained by the workers through on-the-job educate, and so the time employed working increases their productivity afterwards on. A recent research on the impact of human capital on economic development carried out by Ogujuiba and Adeniyi shows a more robust result using data from the Central Bank of Nigeria one-year report 1970 2003. Their findings were that education level indicated via primary to 3rd education hi chronicle in Nigeria has a positive impact on Nigerias economic development. withal though the relationship between economic development and tertiary education enrolment is positive, it is also found to be weak. This is probably associated to the d ecay in most of the tertiary institutions, persistent strikes and disruption of academic activities, unretentive championship and weak infrastructure in the educational domain of Nigeria.Becker (1992) provides the most direct link between education and economic growth lower berth prolificacy provides an opportunity to increase human capital, which in turn helps sustain lower fertility. The more educated the parents are, the more likely they go for smaller families because not only do they have a higher opportunity court of time, but also they mint teach their children more effectively. High levels of human capital cause low fertility and high investment in human capital.Other factors that constitute human capital and affect development are health services, social services and good governance.Health services include all the necessary need of a citizen when he/she is ill. Health services enkindle be reflected by several indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality. Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995, Ch.12), among many others, have also include life expectancy and infant mortality in the growth regressions as a proxy of tangible human capital, complementing the intangible human capital measures derived from school inputs or cognitive tests considered their finding is that life expectancy has a strong, positive relation with growth. This means that Health services which help an individual to operate at his/her full capacity increases overall productivity and hence growth and development.When there is good governance, there will be social services and also, human capital will be increased thereby leading to development. But Nigeria, a country that relies only on anoint revenues lacks good governance. Barton (2003) points out that due to lack of good governance in Nigeria, expenditure outstripped revenue, large internal budget deficits mounted and grandiose international debts appeared. He also added that a general lack of accountability and transp arency, two critical factors for maintaining good governance was lacking in Nigeria. These problems also decay overall credibility and drastically undermined investor confidence. Nigerias international image is rather abject. In a credit-risk rating published in the Economist in1994, Nigeria was ranked trine to last, after Iraq and Russia (The Economist, 1994).In view of our topic, the literature has been focused mainly on the relationship that runs from human capital to development. In my own view, the relationship can also run from development to human capital. For ideal, Nigeria with its abundant natural resources can enjoy economic development via international trade gains. Nigeria in coaction with multinational corporations can exploit its natural resources and sell to the world market. These gains from the global market can be channelled to various sectors of the economy thus enhancing growth and development. But all this will be possible if and only if there is good go vernance in Nigeria which will allocate resources efficiently, implement the proper policies and lead the various sectors of the economy in the right direction. With these gains to trade, which lead to development, human capital can be revisited to enhance greater development. On the other hand also, high levels of human capital can increase revenues via increasing output and attracting abroad direct investments. For example the case of India where their governments have spent a treat on their people to attain Information technology know-how which attracts companies in the United States to outsource some of their IT work from India. Nigeria is a country with a high population thus with a high human capital potential. With the necessary governance and commitment, Nigeria can be rich in human capital thereby leading to its development.3. Human Capital and Development IndicatorHuman Development mogulThe Human Development Index (HDI) provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development vivacious a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, lower-ranking and tertiary level) and having a decent standardized of living (measured by purchasing queen coincidence, PPP, income). alone these factors affect the output level of a country. According to the 2007/2008 human development Report, Iceland is ranked 1st while Sierra Leone is ranked 177th in the 2005 human development Index. The HDI for Nigeria is 0.470, which gives the country a rank of 158th out of 177 countries. This clearly shows that Iceland is more developed than Nigeria because of the difference in human capital.Table 1 below shows Nigerias Human development index for 2005.Table 1 Nigerias human development index 2005HDI valueLife expectancy at kind(years)Adult literacy rate(% ages 15 and older)Combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio(%)GDP per capita(PPP US$)1. Iceland (0.968) 1. Japan (82.3)1. Georgia (100.0)1. Australia (113.0)1. capital of Luxembourg (60,228)156. Senegal (0.499)163. Botswana (48.1)102. Algeria (69.9)136. Nepal (58.1)158. Rwanda (1,206)157. Eritrea (0.483)164. Cte dIvoire (47.4)103. Tanzania (United Republic of) (69.4)137. Equatorial dago (58.1)159. Benin (1,141)158. Nigeria (0.470)165. Nigeria (46.5)104. Nigeria (69.1)138. Nigeria (56.2)160. Nigeria (1,128)159. Tanzania (United Republic of) (0.467)166. Malawi (46.3)105. Guatemala (69.1)139. Bangladesh (56.0)161. Eritrea (1,109)160. ginzo (0.456)167. Guinea-Bissau (45.8)106. Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (68.7)140. Yemen (55.2)162. Ethiopia (1,055)177. Sierra Leone (0.336)177. Zambia (40.5)139. Burkina Faso (23.6)172. Niger (22.7)174. Malawi (667)Source UNDPHuman Development Index TrendsThe human development index trends tell an important story of how human development changes over time. Since the mid-1970s almost all regions have been come alongively increasing their HDI score (F igure 2). East Asia and South Asia have accelerated progress since 1990. Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of In pendant States (CIS), following a catastrophic decline in the first half of the 1990s, has also cured to the level before the reversal. The major exception is sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1990 it has stagnated, partly because of economic reversal but principally because of the catastrophic effect of HIV/ aid on life expectancy.Figure 2 TrendsNigerias human development growth is slow compared to other regions in the world and this also translates to slow development. This is perhaps due to factors that hinder the three dimensions that the HDI captures (life expectancy, adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level and purchasing power parity, PPP, income). Factors may include high level of diseases, worthless health services, misallocation of resources, bad governance, poor infrastructure, and poor educational systems.4. Nigerias H uman Capital and DevelopmentNigeria, a country with a pullulate population of over 140 million people with an oil dependent economy has had a declining average economic growth over the years. This is in part due to poor human capital. Several sectors of the Nigerian economy have suffered immensely due to poor human capital. Poor human capital has its devastating effect on the development of any economy. modest income, hunger, poverty, disease, brain-drain, optical flight, huge debts and political instability are all the ramifications of poor human capital.Nigerias high population does not indicate high human capital value because only a hardly a(prenominal) people are opportune to have quality education, health services and other human development services. The value of the human capital asset of a nation is a function of quantity, quality as well as the direct environment (Akingbade, 2008). High population only indicates high potential for human capital development. When substa ntial inputs and efforts are made to elevate these potentials that is when high population translate to high human capital value. Among the inputs are a good educational system, good health systems and a conducive operating environment. Nigeria lacks both inputs and efforts needed to elevate its high human capital potentials. For instance, Nigeria is far more endowed in mineral resources and human population than Japan, Sweden or capital of Singapore yet it comes nowhere neighboring these countries in technological advancement and in economic and social development. What makes the difference is human capital, its development, effective engagement and utilization. (Akingbade, 2008).In wrong of the educational systems of Nigeria, there are a litter of government owned primary and secondary schools. Also, there are a lot of Universities in Nigeria but the problem is the amount of resources invested in these areas is insufficient. Due to the few resources allocated to the educational sector, quality education becomes difficult to attain. As Nigerias population increase in a geometrical ratio, the resources allocated to education is increasing slowly or sometimes decreasing. This misallocation of resources results to a lot of pressure on existing infrastructure leading to depreciation. Huge quantities of people pass out from primary, secondary schools and the Universities with teentsy or no knowledge and no jobs to do. The heap in Nigeria are the ones mostly deprived of quality education and health services. Due to the loss of quality education, there are low incomes and wages. These low incomes and wages come away already existing persons with high human capital to inappropriate countries in search of a better pasture (brain drain). This brain drain leads to insufficient professionals in Nigeria causing overall productivity to fall. The country is odd with a lot of people with little or no utilitarian knowledge in terms of increasing overall productivity. It is in the midst of all this that people are meant to elect a leader they dont know about. The masses deprived of quality education dont know their rights, the constitution, and other related matters that affect their social well being now and in the near future. Inefficient and ineffective leaders are put in place to continue misallocating resources thereby worsening the situation. more than masses become poor and thus reduce the overall productivity of Nigeria.Another part of the problem is poor or inadequate health facilities, infrastructure and professionals. The existing health facilities and infrastructure cannot cater for the teeming population and hence a lot of people are deprived quality health care. Due to inadequate health facilities, a lot of people die from diseases that are curable thereby reducing Nigerias high human capital development potential. Also, due to low incomes and wages explained earlier, Nigerian docs, nurses and health officers migrate to developed countries for a better life. These inadequacies in health facilities, infrastructure and professionals undermine the health sector and hence lead to reduced overall productivity of the nation.The Human indigence Index (HPI-1) measures severe deprivation in health by the parity of people who are not expected to survive age 40. Education is measured by the adult illiteracy rate. And a decent standard of living is measured by the unweighted average of people without access to an better water source and the proportion of children under age 5 who are near for their age. The Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) value for Nigeria is 37.3 which rank Nigeria eightieth among 108 developing countries.Table 2 shows the values for these variables for Nigeria and compares them to other countries.Table 2 Selected indicators of human poverty for NigeriaHuman Poverty Index (HPI-1) 2004Probability of not surviving past age 40 (%) 2004Adult illiteracy rate (%ages 15 and older) 2004People without access to an improved water source (%)2004Children underweight for age (% ages 0-5) 20041. Barbados (3.0)1. Iceland (1.4)1. Estonia (0.2)1. Thailand (1)1. Czech Republic (1)78. Rwanda (36.5)158. Uganda (38.5)127. Algeria (30.1)114. Mali (50)108. Philippines (28)79. Malawi (36.7)159. Cte dIvoire (38.6)128. Tanzania (United Republic of) (30.6)115. Guinea (50)109. Indonesia (28)80. Nigeria (37.3)160. Nigeria (39.0)129. Nigeria (30.9)116. Nigeria (52)110. Nigeria (29)81. Burundi (37.6)161. Guinea-Bissau (40.5)130. Guatemala (30.9)117. Fiji (53)111. Sri Lanka (29)82. Yemen (38.0)162. congo (Democratic Republic of the) (41.1)131. Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (31.3)118. Congo (Democratic Republic of the) (54)112. Maldives (30)108. Chad (56.9)173. Zimbabwe (57.4)164. Burkina Faso (76.4)125. Ethiopia (78)134. Bangladesh (48)Source UNDPNigeria, a country with abundant natural resources and high population can invest immensely in human capital development in its citizens to enjoy increased productiv ity. With the immense Oil revenues, Nigeria can channel sufficient resources to providing opportunities for all citizens to develop to their fullest potentials through education, training and demand as well as creating the enabling environment for everyone to participate fully in national development. These will include expenditures in educational and training institutions, health facilities, adult functional literacy, vocational and skills acquisition programmes, information and communication technologies (ICT) as well as in research and development. With all these investments, foreign direct investment will increase (e.g. Information engine room task outsourcing of American companies from India) and revenues from within and outside the country will also increase.5. Recommendations and ConclusionDespite all the poor education system, health services, social services and governance system in Nigeria, there are possible recommendations that will help reduce the enormous impact on the economy. Each and every system stated above has its impact on human capital and thus the development of a nation and as such have different recommendations.Starting with the poor education system in Nigeria, one must consider the resources allocated to this sector before making any recommendation. jump of all, the teachers available in schools and Universities considering the number of students are really inadequate. Nowadays, everyone wants to be rich, no one wants to help in social development. Our values have changed and we have become more self centered. So our values need to be changed back via value re-orientation suiting our social values. Students need to understand what is at stake in the educational system and be encouraged to be teachers. Quality teachers need to be produced. No education system can vacate above the quality of its teachers and no nation can rise above the level of its education system (Akingbade, 2008). When there is an increase in the number of qu ality teachers, the ratio of teachers to students will be efficient for quality education. The Nigerian populace is increasing at a geometrical ratio while the number of quality schools and University is somewhat stagnant. For this reason, there need to be more schools for the teeming populace so as to have a considerably small ratio of teachers to students in a well strengthened infrastructure conducive for learning. Also, the educational system needs to undergo reforms to be well equipped with the challenges of the highly advanced global economy. The integration of the use of computers in all spheres of the education system needs to be emphatic because the world is continuously advancing in computer technology. Teachers/Lecturers salaries and improved working conditions in educational institutions should be granted high priority by the Government. Regular closure of tertiary institutions due to strikes, cult activities, and excesses of student unions, etc. should be addressed b y the relevant authorities. The effort of Government on increasing primary school enrolment through the free needed Universal Basic Education should be sustained. This could also be complemented by involving private and religious organizations.Another problem that needs urgent precaution is the issue of poor health services. If the whole country is sick, the whole country stops functioning. And as such here are possible recommendations for the Nigerian health sector First and foremost is strategizing various ways to retain our medical doctors and nurses to reduce brain drain. Due to poor salary given to these workers, they tend to migrate to other countries. The salaries of doctors and nurses need to be reconsidered in terms of the actual state of the economy. Other alternatives to well paid salaries can be more benefits to the workers to serve as an incentive to stay in Nigeria. For example policy can be created to say if you are a doctor in Nigeria, you are entitled to a house a nd two cars one for you and one for your wife. Another recommendation for the Nigerian health sector is the provision of adequate facilities and infrastructure to the ever growing populace. The government needs to increase its expenditure in the health sector as the population increases. More hospitals need to be constructed and more medical equipments need to be installed in these new hospitals. Good hospital roads need to be constructed in order to have easy access. The provision of more ambulances is really a crucial issue in case of emergencies. Also, Information and Communication Technology need to be integrated to the Nigerian health sector so as to increase efficiency. Our doctors and nurses need to be updated always via the internet and as such they need to be familiar with computers and the internet for better performance. entirely these good hospitals with many doctors and nurses need not to be deprived for the masses it should be accessed by all because everyone matters in the development process. Lastly, the most important issue after getting all the doctors, nurses, equipment and infrastructure is the victuals aspect. All these hospitals need sufficient maintenance to survive for a long time and as such a qualitative maintenance company believe by the government should be given the sole task. If one maintenance company lacks the capacity to maintain a lot of hospitals, other qualitative maintenance companies can also be in place. With two or more maintenance companies, there will be competition between them and price of maintenance will fall.Good governance in Nigeria can be indicated via various factors and one of the factors is social service. When there is good governance, there will be qualitative and quantitative social services for the people thereby enhancing human capital. But on the other hand, when there is bad governance, there will be white elephant projects leading to few social services. Good governance in Nigeria should be encour aged via fighting corruption and setting up effective and efficient check and balance system. every individual that is given responsibility in office should be held responsible for his/her actions. Also, government expenditure relative to its revenue should be monitored to enhance good governance. Another recommendation for good governance is making all government decisions transparent to the people. Keeping people in the loop of government decisions reduce the probability of strikes and civil unrest. Strategizing good governance for Nigeria will greatly improve Nigerias image to the international community thereby encouraging potential investors to invest in the Nigerian economy. As investors invest and the government provides more social services for the people, human capital is immensely increased leading to economic development.In a nutshell, all recommendations should be posed at all possible factors that constitute human capital and affect development educational systems, hea lth services, social services and governance. It is these factors that turn high human capital potential into human capital value and it is these factors that help a nation develop both socially and economically.CONCLUSIONWe have seen despite the fact that Nigeria has been immensely blessed with natural resources and high human capital development potentials, it still fails to become one of the leading economic and technological giants in the world. Nigeria in the Human Poverty Index ranks 80th among 108 developing countries essence a lot of the masses in Nigeria are poor, deprived of health care and quality education and thus translate into low or no development. Also, Nigeria in the Human Development Index ranks 158th out of 177 countries video display that there is low life expectancy, adult literacy, purchasing power parity and enrollment at primary, secondary and tertiary level. Several results of various research points out the fact that all the factors mentioned above affec t the value of human capital of a country and its development. And as such, all these factors need to be given the outmost importance in policy making. With the globalised economy fair more competitive and advanced in terms of technology, Nigeria, a country with all that it needs to be on top should make the dress hat use of what it has in order to have the best there is in this global economy.