Surviving the Present Economic Situation in Nigeria: The Role of the University and the Alumni

Abstract

Nigeria is believed to be Africa’s largest economy; but the fact that most Nigerians languish in absolute poverty and her youths (most of whom are graduates) have remained unemployed is a serious source of worry to the elites. In fact, the process of transformation in Nigeria according to Ayokhai & Naankiel (2016) is ridden with crisis. This ranges from social crisis to political crisis, economic crisis and the likes. While we note that the economic transformation process in the country has been marked by little steps of progress and numerous setbacks since independence (1960), it is pertinent to mention also that prior to mid 2015, inflation and exchange rate policies in the country have been rather consistent for a relatively and reasonable number of years. For instance, inflation rate was maintained at an average of 16% between 2005–2010, and was considerably reduced to a single digit of about 8% between 2013–mid 2015.