Dangote
Group Receives Applications From 6 P.H.D, 704 Masters and Over 8460 Bachelor
Degree Holders for The Position of Truck Driver in Nigeria
The rate of unemployment in
Nigeria was recently highlighted when chairman of the Dangote group, Mr. Aliko
Dangote, revealed that over 13,000 people had applied for the post of Truck
driver in his company.
Mr. Aliko Dangote revealed at a mentorship meeting of the
World Bank Youth Summit that over 13,000 graduates, comprising of 6 PhD-holders, 704
Masters-holders and over 8460 Bachelor Degree Holders from reputable universities in
Nigeria had applied for only 100 vacancies.
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| Aliko Dangote |
The Group introduced a scheme that would pay the drivers
additional trip allowances over their salaries and would have them own the trucks
at no extra fees or interest after they covered 300,000 kilometers,
hence making them self-dependent.
Initially, there had been a lot of complaints regarding the
qualification requirement, which was termed unfair by the unemployed masses, as
it required a minimum of a Bachelor’s certificate to apply. There were speculations that the job would pay a 3,200 USD salary, and
for a country where over 60% of the population live under a dollar per day, this was mouthwatering.
Jeffrey’s
Random Thoughts: Today in my Entrepreneurial Leadership class, I
was made to assess my methods of earning and spending money. I and the other
Nigerians ranked highest in the Status quota, meaning we often earn and spend
our money in ways that tend to provide us with some higher level of social
ranking. Upon hearing this news I wondered: has the poverty level back home
become so unbearable that a fairly high salary would erase the lack of
reputation in being a truck driver in the mind of a P.H.D holder?
The
lack of jobs and the poor standard of living in Nigeria provides very little
incentive for education in the country. The government has since spent millions
of dollars in an attempt to combat terrorism and insecurity in the country but
they neglect the underlying cause: UNEMPLOYMENT. It has been overly reiterated
to me at my school that addressing a problem is not complete without addressing
the underlying cause and I wish my government officials could sit in on my
entrepreneurial leadership class.
While I
question; ‘Would I become a truck driver too?’ I do hope this serves as a
wakeup call to the various policy makers in the country who need to go back to
the drawing board and devise a means of solving this problem.
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