It is D-day in Nasarawa State today as the Vice President, His Excellency Senator Kashim Shettima launches the Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Strategy Document in Lafia, the state capital.
A release from the focal Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Agency (HCDA) indicates the overarching focus of the strategy as “accelerating growth and development.”
The occasion shall also feature the launch of the Nasarawa state Gender Transformative Human Capital Development policy framework.
Human Capital Development was adopted as a development strategy by the National Economic Council in 2018. The aim was to address poverty and ensure sustainable economic growth.
” Nigeria’s Human Capital Development program (HCD 1.0) set clear targets and commitments for investment priorities, accelerating investments in human capital, and expanding stakeholder support to drive outcomes in Health, Education, and Labour Force participation in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.”
With a population of about 215million, expected to double to 400million by 2050, the human capital, apart from a huge reserve of oil and gas, which is a finite resource, is Nigeria’s most sustainable development resource.
A huge population alone is however, not enough. Age and educational attainment are two critical attributes required to make the population amenable to development needs.
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Consequently, the World Bank Human Capital Project defines human capital “as a combination of the knowledge, skills, and health people accumulate throughout their lives that enables them to realise their potential as productive members of society.”
It is therefore the position of the NEC that, “For Nigeria to unlock its ‘demographic dividend’ and tap into the economic potential of its working age citizens, the country will need to first enhance its investment in its people – particularly women and children.”
It argues that, “Over the past decade, many of the key metrics relating to Human Capital
Development (HCD) in Nigeria have been going in the wrong direction.
Nigeria’s performance across all major global HCD indices, including the United Nations Human Capital Index, the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Expected
Human Capital Index, and the World Bank Human Capital Index, is below the global average, as well as below the average for developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA),” the NEC, Nigeria’s apex economic policy body posited.
According to a statement by Habiba Balarabe Suleiman, the Director General, Nasarawa State HCDA, successful implementation of the state HCD Strategic Plan 2024-2030 “is pivotal to the socioeconomic growth and sustainable development of Nasarawa state.”
The launch of the HCD Strategy Document and Nasarawa state Gender Transformative Human Capital Development policy framework by the Vice President opens a new vista in the development aspiration of the state and a benchmark for peer review by other sub-nationals.
