#Article (Archive)

Invest in human resources

Dec 14, 2009, 2:30 PM

It is an acceptable fact that human resources do not only contribute to national development, but a factor of production that also creates wealth.

There are many countries that are not blessed with abundant natural resources, yet they are able to create stupendous wealth, due to efficient applications of their human resources. Japan is a case in point.

By contrast there are some African countries that are endowed with natural wealth, yet deeply steeped in poverty, culminating mainly from poor applications of their human resources.

It all goes to show that it is not what you have at your disposal that matters, but how you make judicious use of them. As africans we must emphasise the need for  more technical and vocational training opportunities that should be made available and affordable to the people, as it's the labour that makes a difference.

A country endowed with well-trained and well-mobilised human resources is bound to be more prosperous than the one with ill-trained and poorly co-ordinated human resources.

It is therefore important to invest a lot in our human resources. We need well-trained manpower to exploit our mineral wealth, and to ensure a just and equitable distribution within the framework of an open society.

Sadly, vices that retard Africa’s progress include corruption, nepotism, ethnicity, religious bigotry and senseless wars.

Even where there is superabundance of highly-skilled human resources, it would bear no fruition if corruption continued to exist unabated.