HOW TO GROW HUMAN CAPITAL
Nigeria, as a microcosm of Africa, has a human capital problem — there is low capability and productivity within the workforce. (Africa’s share of the population with completed tertiary education has remained very low compared to other regions of the world, Future of Work in Africa Report 2019 by the World Bank Group.) While governments and policymakers may be trying to remedy this problem through various education investments and interventions;we believe these efforts do very little to provide an immediate fix and the long term efficacy is still shrouded in empirical mystery. What people need is not just more schooling, but a broader set of opportunities for them to learn new skills and display their outputs.
Nigeria’s macroeconomic woes have made things worse by collapsing earnings of the labour force and reducing newer opportunities. The unique role of Gigpro in the value chain is to leverage technology in an integrated platform to grow human capital and raise productivity.
HOW WE GROW HUMAN CAPITAL
Every production process has key inputs. One key input in growing human capital is knowledge. So far, humans have learned by doing and through instructions. Others have learned by trial and error — by experimentation. This is culture.
We think about growing human capital along three axes:
- Learning to learn — school (what we know as education)
- Learning to do — profession
- Learning to be — culture
We believe every human has a potential human capital, though quality of ideas/output differs . In growing human capital and raising productivity, a question arises — which is more important, quality of output/ideas or quantity of output/ideas?
We think both. Quality ideas/output should be available in large quantities for scale effect. This takes deliberate action, action we have taken at Gigpro by enabling quality output at the scale that matters. The three axes are woven into the framework of Gigpro in a continuous feedback loop of adding knowledge to grow human capital.
We also understand that a large population with a large labour force does not automatically yield human capital. The relationship between population and human capital is non-linear. In the event of low human capital to population ratio, it is important to open up to those we can learn from. Using one of our favourite quotes:
One must learn from those who are more advanced before one can catch up with and surpass them. Independence does not mean shutting the door on the world, nor does self-reliance mean blind opposition to everything foreign— Deng Xiaoping
This has policy implications, however, digital technology can be deployed far ahead of government policy. Gigpro onboards members of the diaspora community as professional service providers on the platform. Gigpro has strategic partnerships with Edtech companies to foster continuous learning for our professionals, and the platform allows immediate feedback on the quality of output through learning by doing. This is our culture.
