Nigeria is currently witnessing growing army of unemployed youths, and battalions of unemployable graduates. The weakened education standards, and incessant strike actions at the tertiary institution level had turned a four-year university degree programme to almost a decade-long, stagnated marching on the spot. By the environment and the education system, adults are now babies in their parents’ houses; heavily relying on their parents for sustenance at a time they ought to be at the peak of their productive years. Fully grown males with beards that compete in size and thickness with a 70-years old men, are convenient arguing over a bowl of rice and beans with their younger, junior secondary school ones, and they are really behaving line peers at home. In five or ten years time, Nigeria, by reason of her attitude to education of her citizen, would have raise more than half of the population to be babies with no means of livelihood or capacity to be productive. Where do we go from here?
Some parents have been helping themselves by sending their wards out to private schools and even outside the country to acquire higher education.
Though they may be seeing escape route out of Nigeria’s economic quagmire, it will come to a time, and I foresee very soon, when the western economies may kick against absorption of the foreign workforce as a result of the influx. So that is the way out? In this piece, I will start from the basics of financial literacy and economic empowerment: that is a deliberate action-plan for the children.
In Nigeria today, most parents take delight in introducing their children to ostentatious lifestyle. They will rather show the children how to spend money, how to demand both what they need and what they don’t need with unparalleled arrogance. In their minds, the best way they can show the children that they care is by indulging them in all excesses. The thinking of many parents is that these children’s right should not be debased or they cannot learn anything yet. They forget that what we show children and what they observe us do stay longer with them than what we sit them down to teach them. The outcome of the misplaced priorities is what we are daily confronted with in the attitudes, behaviours and manners of today’s Nigerian youths and the socio-economic situation we consciously established for ourselves in this country where the youths want to ‘hammer’ as quickly as they can, not giving a hoot if they scam even their parents; a country where millions of able-bodied working class cannot find work to do and they are busy roaming the streets to look for who will employ them.
Since children, no matter their age, have the capacity to spend money and at particular age they begin to demand for money, it behoves on parents to show their children at tender ages how to save money. When they grow up with this mindset, it will become a natural habit in them. The starting point in the development of entrepreneurial skills is a knack for money saving. It is when you have money to play with that productive ideas can begin to play in your head. One of the sure strategies to tackle youth unemployment challenges is for parents to consciously choose to help their own children not to join the millions that are looking for who will employ them by helping them move from job seekers to become job providers.
In this piece, I will advocate and show how parents can turn their children to financial powerhouse in their teenage years with ease. My take here is that if children have money of their own before they become graduates and entrepreneurial spirit is already established in them, the chance is there that good percentage of the young graduates will start businesses of their own instead of looking for who will employ them. I developed a chart on how to turn children to millionaires and I still find it instructive to share the process with as many people as possible today. The question that agitates the mind is: At what ages do you see your children become first degree graduates and who should they financially be at that level? Our objective is to break the cycle of financial paucity that has held many families bound that keep them roiling in poverty.
The target parents need to set here is that each of their children should become millionaire before they are fifteen years old. This is very possible to achieve – without sweat. The ingredients you need to make it happen is proper application of knowledge, determination, focus, commitment, good use of time, active involvement of the children, understanding, intelligence and experience. Now let us examine the process. By practice, a child begins to earn income immediately he is born, as he is also by nature know how to consume. In visiting to greet the mother, well wishers start to give money. Also, on the naming day, money is given to the child, in the course of the child growing up he or she receives money gifts from family friends, uncles, aunts, etc. Unfortunately, most of this money gifts end up being frittered on things the children best understood (that is if the parents themselves don’t spend it) due to lack of financial education in child upbringing.
With direct and active involvement of parents, there is a better way for such money to be put to use that will make the child a financially empowered person or a millionaire which in turn will make him bid unemployment bye by the time he is leaving school to fit fully into the society. If I may ask, how much can you conveniently be giving a child as savings on a regular basis immediately the child is born from you own income beside the normal financial responsibility you have to take care of as a parent? A positive disposition to this question, no doubt, will help you as a person to become more financially intelligent and thus afford you the opportunity to improve upon your children’s financial status and, by extension, your own financial life. What you need to achieve this children financial empowerment is a regular N3,000 to N5,000 savings: an amount that is not too extraordinary or stressful.
. Emmanuel is a business planning and cooperative consultant. He works with a team of international consultants to conceptualise and plan agribusiness and housing projects. As a certified trainer authorised to use the International Labour Organisation’s enterprise development modules, he trains entrepreneurs and organises workshops and seminars for potential and practising entrepreneurs as well as business managers and cooperatives. He also speaks and facilitates at leadership and management workshops on invitation. His book, Business Planning Made Easy: Step by Step Guide On How To Turn Your Idea To Profitable Business’ is the latest of the books authored by him. Tel: +234(0)9068602954 (call and sms), +234(0)8023257707 (WhatsApp only).
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