Prof. Magnus Kpakol, Executive Chairman, Economic Growth and Development Center advocated the development of human capital in Nigeria to address the nation’s economic challenges. He identified the scourge of human capital deficiency in Nigeria as the country’s main constraint for economic and political progress.
Prof. Magnus Kpakol, who delivered a paper titled, “Enhancing Industrial Cooperation for Improved Economic and Human Security in Nigeria, at the National Defence College (condition (NDC) Growth Manus Course 30 Seminar on Economy and Finance, said that human capital had to do with practical knowledge and skills that could be deployed to produce goods and services.
According to him, human capital comprises education, wellness, attitude and behavior needed to produce economic value, and countries that are doing well today are countries that have high stocks of human capital. He emphasized that there is a strong correlation between global economic competitiveness and human capital development or human capital index and maintained that if Africa is going to be successful, the people will have to be well trained.
According to him “whether you are going into leadership or whatever it is, you need training because that is what the countries that are successful do. If you don’t have productive ability to produce goods and services to sell to people then you will not have the money to enable you to have power over-consumption of goods and services”.
Prof. Kpakol also stated that a low level of human capital was responsible for the corruption that has had a negative impact on the nation’s economy in what he calls “witchcraft economics”. “When you don’t have the productive ability to produce something then you cut corners, you go through the window to take somebody’s stuff that does not belong to you”. “Any kind of illegitimacy involved in your acquiring goods and services is witchcraft economics”.
