Skills development within Nigeria’s multinational corporations

Abstract

ABSTRACT The quest for the relevant skills necessary for socio-economic transformation in Africa partly explains the drive by African countries to attract investments by multinational corporations (MNCs) – the custodians of modern skills and technology. While the literature is replete with analyses of liberal policies and incentives offered to encourage investments by multinational corporations, little scholarly attention appears to have been paid to the need to incorporate MNC skills policies and programmes into the national skills agenda. In Nigeria, like many developing countries, several years of MNC operations have not resulted in any meaningful alignment of multinational skills development programmes with national aspirations for human capital formation. It is against this backdrop that this article examines the skills development challenge in Nigeria vis-à-vis the efforts of multinational corporations in the area of skills development. The article is anchored in the Human Capital Theory of Gary S. Becker and Protectionist Narrative of Joel Bakan. The article engaged with key-informant interviews (5) and in-depth interviews (19) conducted in selected multinational companies, government agencies concerned with skills development and Organised Labour Federations in Nigeria. The paper has found that there is somewhat incongruence in MNCs’ skills development practice and national aspirations.