Business

How Systems-Driven Education Interventions Can Rebuild Nigeria’s Workforce

Published

3 months ago

July 31, 2026

PRESS RELEASE—Nigeria’s most damaging infrastructure deficit may not be roads, power or ports, but a weak education system producing too few work-ready citizens for an economy seeking to industrialise, digitalise and compete. With about 10.5 million primary-school-age children out of school and only about one in four children aged 7 to 14 able to read a simple sentence or handle basic numeracy, education can no longer be treated as a peripheral social concern. It is core national infrastructure.

This is why Nigeria must move beyond the old model of corporate philanthropy in education — the one-off donation, ceremonial scholarship or isolated classroom block — and encourage interventions that strengthen the full learning pipeline. The NNPC/Seplat Energy Joint Venture’s education model offers a useful example because it spans teacher development, student competition, school infrastructure, scholarships and entrepreneurship support. Its value lies not only in scale, but in structure: it treats education as a system, not a photo opportunity.

Host Community Impact at a Glance

34% of Seplat’s 780 undergraduate scholarships have gone to students from host communities.
The Seplat JV PEARLs Quiz is open to secondary schools in Delta, Edo and Imo States, with more states to follow.
Since 2012, PEARLs Quiz has impacted 61,035 teachers and students.
₦101 million in prize funding has supported school projects such as libraries, classroom blocks and buses.
STEP has recorded 1,334 educators trained, including 1,232 secondary-school teachers and 102 Ministry of Education staff.

Too often, companies still approach education through isolated gestures that create goodwill but little systemic change. Nigeria now needs a more disciplined and ambitious full value-chain approach that addresses teachers, students, learning environments, progression pathways and employability as linked parts of one ecosystem.

What distinguishes the Seplat model is that it works across several pressure points at once. Teacher quality is improved through structured capacity building. Student motivation is reinforced through academic competition and recognition. Schools receive infrastructure support. Scholarships widen access to tertiary education, while entrepreneurship training connects learning to economic independence. The logic is simple: if a system is broken at several points, meaningful intervention cannot occur at only one.

The same systems thinking is visible in host communities and host states. PEARLs Quiz rewards academic excellence while leaving behind assets that strengthen schools long after the competition ends. STEP focuses on the teacher as the multiplier: a scholarship may transform one student, but a strong teacher can influence hundreds over time. The undergraduate scholarship allocation also shows a balance between national reach and local responsibility, recognising the special obligation companies have to communities closest to their operations.

The policy lesson is clear. Every serious sector in Nigeria depends on education for its future workforce: energy needs engineers and technicians; healthcare needs skilled professionals; agriculture and manufacturing need technical competence; and the digital economy needs software, design and analytical talent. Poor education today becomes poor productivity tomorrow. Private-sector participation in education should therefore be recognised not as optional benevolence, but as enlightened self-interest and national economic strategy.

For government, the task is to mobilise private-sector capital and execution capacity through intentional partnerships with federal and state education authorities. For companies, the challenge is to move from random acts of generosity to structured interventions that improve learning quality, teacher capability, school infrastructure and access pathways. For the media, the responsibility is to distinguish interventions that genuinely move systems from those that merely generate headlines.

Seplat Energy’s model is worthy of attention because it goes beyond the one-off gesture. It links teachers to students, students to facilities, facilities to opportunity, and opportunity to long-term development. Nigeria does not need just more corporate interventions in education; it needs better-designed ones

The post How Systems-Driven Education Interventions Can Rebuild Nigeria’s Workforce appeared first on Business Today NG.

Related Topics:education Interventions Nigerias Rebuild SystemsDriven workforce

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Business

First HoldCo appoints new non-executive director

Published

1 hour ago

October 23, 2026

PlateauReports

First HoldCo Plc has appointed Gwen Mwaba as a non-executive director of the financial institution, effective 15 October, following an approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The lender disclosed the appointment in a regulatory filing signed by Abiola Baruwa, the group company secretary, on Thursday.

First HoldCo said the appointment was made in accordance with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) Rulebook.

According to the lender, Ms Mwaba brings significant expertise in corporate governance and board oversight, credit risk and portfolio management, banking strategy, capital deployment, structured trade and commodity finance, development finance, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, and emerging-market risk.

Profile

Ms Mwaba brings nearly three decades of experience in global banking and development finance institutions, with particular expertise in credit risk oversight, portfolio governance, corporate and sovereign lending, structured trade and commodity finance, development finance and emerging markets.

Until recently, she served as managing director of Trade Finance and Correspondent Banking at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), based in Cairo, Egypt.

In that role, Ms Mwaba had executive leadership responsibility for trade finance and structured credit activities across Africa and the Caribbean.

The newly appointed director also oversaw a $19.5 billion portfolio of sovereign, financial institution and corporate exposures.

She contributed to the bank’s Pre-Credit and Credit Committees, providing senior credit judgement on major lending transactions. She also oversaw portfolio strategy, sector exposures and country risk limits.

Before that, Ms Mwaba served as regional head for Anglophone West Africa at Afreximbank, overseeing regional strategy and credit origination across Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia and Cape Verde.

Earlier, she was executive vice president of Structured Trade and Commodity Finance at Standard Bank Plc, London, where she was responsible for complex commodity finance, export credit agency-backed facilities and pre-export financing transactions across Africa.

Her earlier banking career included senior roles at Stanbic Bank Zambia and Standard Bank South Africa, including head of Vehicle and Asset Finance and head of Corporate Banking.

READ ALSO: CBN restates single-digit inflation target as FG woos investors with tax credits

Ms Mwaba’s wider industry experience includes membership of the editorial board of Trade Treasury & Payments.

Until recently, her also served on the Multilateral Institutions Board Advisory Panel of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) and the World Trade Organization-led Expert Group on Trade Finance.

Ms Mwaba holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom.

She is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and holds a professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Transport.

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Business

TUDUN WADA, OTHER PLATEAU COMMUNITIES TO GET ELECTRICITY BOOST!

Published

9 hours ago

October 23, 2026

PlateauReports

70-TRANSFORMER PROJECT REACHES 98% COMPLETION AS PLATEAU EXPANDS POWER ACCESS

There could be brighter days ahead for Tudun Wada and several other communities across Plateau State, as the state government says its ongoing 70-transformer electricity intervention project has reached 98% completion. ⚡️

The intervention is aimed at improving electricity supply and expanding access to power in communities that have experienced inadequate or unreliable electricity supply.

Among the communities listed to benefit from the intervention are Tudun Wada, Naraguta, Rikkos, Nasarawa, Agingi, Longwa, Zawan and Du, alongside other communities across the state.

💡 TUDUN WADA AMONG BENEFICIARIES

For residents of Tudun Wada, the development could mean improved power capacity for homes, businesses, shops, schools and other community activities.

Reliable electricity remains an important part of everyday life, particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs who depend on power to operate equipment, preserve goods and provide services.

From barbershops and salons to restaurants, cold-drink businesses, tailoring shops, phone charging centres, printing businesses and other small enterprises, improved electricity supply could help reduce dependence on alternative sources of power.

⚡️ OLD TRANSFORMERS TO BE REFURBISHED

According to the Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, Hon. Bashir Lawandi Datti, the intervention is not only about installing new transformers.

Some existing and old transformers are also being refurbished and redeployed to areas where they are needed.

This approach is expected to help maximise available infrastructure while extending electricity support to more communities.

🏘️ GOVERNMENT TO PRIORITISE AREAS WITH GREATER NEED

Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang has also approved the relocation of some transformer units to communities considered to have greater electricity needs.

The move is expected to ensure that available power infrastructure is directed to areas where it can have the greatest impact.

With the project now reportedly at 98% completion, attention will be on the final stages of implementation and when the affected communities will begin to fully experience the benefits.

MORE POWER, MORE OPPORTUNITIES

Electricity is more than just light in our homes.

For local businesses, it can mean longer operating hours, reduced operating costs and increased productivity.

For students, it can provide better conditions for studying at night.

For households, it can bring greater convenience.

And for communities like Tudun Wada, improved electricity supply could support economic activities and contribute to a better quality of life.

💡 More transformers.
⚡️ More communities.
🏘️ More access to electricity.
📈 More opportunities for Plateau residents.

But the big question remains: