Every year, Nigeria produces thousands of graduates. But there are only a few jobs waiting. Is that not a mirage? Is that not a national wound? There is a cure. Access to Credit. It is possible for a graduate to leave the university and move straight into entrepreneurship. To work for himself. To work for herself. To build, to hire, to be happy. Credit is the trigger. When a graduate has access to credit, a certificate becomes a company, a skill becomes a salary, a dream becomes a job.
The National Institute of Credit Administration, chartered by Act No. 26 of 2022, is building the system to make credit economy safe, disciplined, and accessible to every igneous Nigerian. Because the future of work is not “job-seeking.” It is “job-creating.” And credit makes it possible.
It is a national mirage. Each year, our universities release thousands of brilliant, energetic graduates into an economy with only a few jobs to offer. We celebrate the convocation, then we mourn the unemployment. We have created a pipeline of hope that empties into a desert of despair. This is a national wound. And wounds must be healed. The medicine is access to credit.
The 21st-century economy cannot absorb all graduates into paid employment, and it should not have to. The new model is simple: Graduate to Access Credit and Create Enterprise. Imagine a mechanical engineering graduate who, with a ₦5 million equipment loan under the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act, opens a precision workshop on day one after NYSC. Imagine a computer science graduate who, with disciplined startup credit, builds a fintech that employs ten classmates. Imagine a food science graduate who moves straight from final year into agro-processing.
This is not fantasy. This is a credit-denominated economy. It is the only economy where a certificate is a license to create jobs, not a ticket to queue for them. Credit is the trigger that turns human capital into productive capital. It turns igneous graduates into employers. It turns job-seekers into job-creators.
But credit without discipline is danger. That is why the National Institute of Credit Administration, chartered by Act No. 26 of 2022, exists. We are professionalizing credit administration management, licensing credit managers, and enforcing the standards that make lending to youth and women safe for banks and transformative for the nation.
To policymakers: Fund the graduate, not just the school. To banks: See a degree as collateral for character. To graduates: Your future is not in an application letter. It is in a business plan. When credit flows to igneous graduates, Nigeria’s greatest export will no longer be talent. It will be products, services, and jobs.
*If only you can picture the direction NICA is going: It’s wise to become a “Life Member” of NICA…. Use your tongue to count your teeth, the future is super bright for the NICA membership community.
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