Paper Title:

Diversity Issues in the Nigerian Economy from 2000 – 2022

Diversity is integral to a strong economy and inclusive growth. A diverse and inclusive economy is an
economy that does not discriminate and treats all its groups on an equal footing. Equal opportunities
with respect to education and jobs can generate a wide range of economic benefits.

In recent decades, Nigeria has experienced a considerable increase in issues of diversity in

the economy of her growing population. These diversity issues include growth of labour
migration, diversity among the workforce in the labour markets, whether due to efforts to
achieve gender balance, LGBTI representation, efforts against discrimination in labour
markets or simply the consequences of globalization. As a result, private companies, public
organizations, policy makers and citizens are trying to find ways to capture the benefits and
mitigate the challenges of diversity.

Gender Diversity Issues in Nigeria Economy

The issue of gender imbalances in access to education and productive resources have
important implications, not only for equity, but also for economic output, productivity, food
security, fertility, and child welfare. Nigerian women, like their counterparts in other parts of
Africa traditionally have multiple responsibilities as mothers and producers and therefore
tend to engage in activities that are home-based and less risky. These have negative
implications, as low risk activities are often those, which produce limited returns. The reduced
physical mobility of many of the women who operate in this category also often prevents them from
seeking out information on better economic opportunities. Generally, however, the self-employed earn
less than their counterparts in paid employment (U.S. Small Business Administration (1997).
Nigerian women who engage in micro and small enterprises started their businesses to
overcome gender discrimination and economic disadvantages including the challenges of
poverty and its consequences.

Nigerian women as a group of social actors, have tremendous capacity of human resources
Nwoye (2002). If participatory development is to benefit from women's contributions and
meet the particular needs of women, a range of strategic and practical measures must be taken
to overcome the barriers limiting their progress. And overcoming these systemic biases
requires a proactive approach.
Workforce Diversity Issues in Nigeria Economy

According to To Daft (2008) Workforce diversity refers to a workforce made up of people

with different human qualities or who belong to various cultural groups. Individual diversity
include people different from themselves along the dimensions such as social background.
Workforce diversity as noted by Robbins and Judge (2011) acknowledges a workforce which
comprised women and men. As the authors went on to observe, these individuals with variety
of physical or psychological abilities. Diversity management is about finding ways to get the
diverse contributions from employees. Traditionally, the term diversity has been widely used
to refer to the demographic composition of a workforce. Some studies have looked at
diversity using the compositional approach, otherwise known as Surface-level diversity
(SLD) or demographic diversity, which refers to the extent to which a unit is heterogeneous
on characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, religion, age, functional background, and
organizational tenure (Tsui and Gutek, 2000; Fajana, et. al, 2011). It has been opined that
many modern work organizations have people of variegated cultural backgrounds working
together as employees which may be a potential source of organizational conflict
(Ukachukwu and Iherionhamma, 2013). Again, diversity in the personality and other
dimensions of diversity could also affect employee behavioural outcomes (Afolabi and
Omole, 2011) Thus managers will need to understand a wide range of behaviours to bring out
the best in the distinctive competences of the workforce. In Nigeria, a Nation with several
ethnic nationalities and languages, as well as diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, the
issue of proper workforce diversity management should even be more important to managers.
Ceteris Paribus and assuming that talent, ability and other desirable characteristics are equally
distributed throughout a nation’s population and everyone has equal opportunity to work in
organizations, then there should be persons of various dimensions of diversity at every level
in organizations. In Nigeria where the population is about one hundred and sixty million
persons of which more than half are of working age, Managers of work organizations will
then be faced with a critical challenge of the proper management of diversity in the work
place. scholars and managers of such opposing view seem to pay little attention to the issue
of managing the physiological and psychological differences in human qualities and
idiosyncrasies which are reflected in demographic differences in terms of gender, age,
physical ability, ethnicity, educational qualifications or functional background as well as other
areas which bother on personality issues such as locus of control, attitudes, values and
perception.
Migration Issues in Nigeria Economic Diversity

Nigeria economy continues to experience diversity issues in high internal and external
migration due to the size of its population, economic crisis, unemployment, insurgency, and
porous borders. The recent situation involving the combination of enduring high-intensity
terrorist attacks, kidnapping, routine violence, and physical insecurity, unfulfilled economic
potential, and a huge population of youths with frustrated ambitions has led to massive
outflows from several Nigerian states, including Lagos, Edo, and Delta states. Some
migration researchers and experts indicated that nearly one in four households in Benin City
in Edo State had one of its members attempt to migrate in the previous year. Those who
choose to migrate most often take an extremely dangerous route to Europe, traveling across
the Saharan desert in the Niger Republic to the Mediterranean Sea. Death, injury, robbery,
sexual violence, and kidnapping are common along this route. Furthermore, individuals living
in Lagos, Edo, and Delta states experience high levels of physical insecurity, including
electoral violence, localized communal clashes, violent crime, and altercations in everyday
life. Recent survey about the divergent view about migration from Nigeria to greener pasture,
reviewed that one in three respondents they were more likely to have an intent to migrate
given the opportunity.

More recent models of the economics of international migration and diversity enhance our
understanding through emphasizing the size, scale, diversity, technology and consumption
impacts (Nijkamp & Poot, 2012).

In Nigeria, migrant issues are no longer viewed as a group of homogenous and mobile labour,
but they can change/influence the composition of economic sectors and establish their own
enterprises and/or offer product and service varieties. Moreover, the diverse composition of
immigrants in the country brings additional economic externalities into the host countries.
This change in the theoretical underpinnings is reflected in the metrics used to measure the
diversity of immigrants starting from the turn of the millennium.

As a way of resolving the numerous migration challenges in the country, Nigeria’s federal
government should dialogue with individual neighbouring African countries, the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), African Union (AU), European Union (EU),
and United Nations (UN) to establish strong cooperation to control illegal migration and acts
of criminality against migrants.
Conclusion

Nigeria is the largest country in African continent. Its population consists of over 120 million
inhabitants, of which, almost half the population is youthful. Nigeria is endowed with
immense natural resources, such as oil, gas, mineral, forest, fertile land, water, fisheries
among others. It has built and developed schools and universities, hospitals, roads, air and
seaports, rail roads, telecommunication and postal infrastructures, banks, industries and
various types of businesses. Several multinational companies operate in Nigeria, especially in
food industry, banking, commerce, exploitation of natural resources. Although its share in the
global economy is still small consisting of a single commodity exportation-oil, mainly in
exportation, Nigeria’s import is very much expanding. Companies are growing and the
demand is highly increasing. However, at this era of democratization, privatization, and free
market, Nigeria’s economy can also turn-around. The major problem menacing the economic
stance of the country is corruption of various natures. The question now is, how best to
mobilize energy, expertise and resources which Nigeria has in abundance, to stimulate its
economic systems. Applying these efforts in small and middle-sized businesses will likely
increase productivity, and ultimately improve the social life and economic welfare of
Nigerian populations. With over half the population of Nigeria being female gender, one
wonders if Nigeria can actually achieve the desired accelerated economic growth with half its
citizen being marginalized in policy planning and economic resource management matters.

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