02/08/2025
*HR’s Wake-Up Call: Why Bigger Numbers Don’t Mean a Better Future*
By: ODC Global Consultant Limited
Let’s get straight to it.
Nigeria’s GDP has just been rebased to $243 billion.
It sounds like good news. But as HR professionals, what does this mean for us? What do we do with this information, and how does it affect our hiring plans, talent development models, compensation structures, workforce strategies, and national HR thinking?
Here’s the truth: our economy may be statistically bigger, but it’s not more productive.
That should shake us.
The GDP rebasing exposed something uncomfortable but critical: our national growth is service-led, informal-heavy, and productivity-poor. The manufacturing sector,long seen as the bedrock of sustainable jobs and competitive economies,is shrinking. In fact, it’s been contracting at an average real rate of -0.76% between 2019 and 2024.
What does that mean for HR?
It means we’re producing more CVs than jobs. It means our people are learning more skills than our economy is absorbing. It means every HR person managing people in Nigeria must now think beyond office politics, payroll software, and HR analytics dashboards,and ask, “Are we building people who will build Nigeria?”
HR INSIGHT #1: Economic Growth Without Industrial Jobs Is A Mirage
The rebased GDP shows growth in fintech, entertainment, telecoms, and informal services,but not in real-sector employment. That’s dangerous.
We’re training people for jobs that are shrinking. We’re growing jobless graduates while celebrating tech summits. We’re celebrating GDP numbers while the industries that build nations are being buried.
If the industrial sector contributes less and less to GDP, then the jobs HR used to manage in those spaces,factory managers, plant technicians, mechanical engineers, industrial trainers, quality assurance officers,will become endangered. And so will the HR people who serve them.
So, what are you building? A CV workshop or an industrial workforce?
HR INSIGHT #2: HR Must Now Champion Reindustrialisation
The rebasing clearly showed that Nigeria’s economy is shifting away from production to consumption. From what builds to what burns.
But here’s the game-changing opportunity for HR: we can lead the call for reindustrialisation by transforming how we build human capital.
Rethink your internship programs: Are you exposing people to real production or just PowerPoint jobs?
Rethink your performance metrics: Are you rewarding process maintenance or problem-solving and innovation?
Rethink your training budgets: Are you investing in industry-relevant skills or generic “corporate training”?
Rethink your hiring strategy: Are you hiring for growth industries or shrinking ones?
HR INSIGHT #3: Bigger GDP? Smaller Hope,If We Don’t Change Our Thinking
Yes, the GDP rebasing makes Nigeria’s economy look bigger. It can attract better credit ratings, lower our debt-to-GDP ratio, and even improve investor confidence.
But here’s the caveat: confidence without competence leads to collapse.
And if HR continues to only play compliance, payroll, and welfare roles without driving strategic workforce transformation, then the projected $1 trillion economy by 2030 will be built on sand.
The HR profession must wake up.
If the real economy is not creating sustainable jobs, then our profession must stop acting like a reactionary support function and become a strategic force for national productivity.
HR INSIGHT #4: Nigeria’s GDP Shows Why HR Must Build for Reality, Not Fantasy
The growth in entertainment, fintech, and digital services is good, but temporary, unless matched with a stable industrial base. HR must understand this:
Fancy offices don’t mean sustainable employment.
Big salaries in tech don’t mean national prosperity.
Startups with hype don’t mean long-term jobs.
We must return to building industries, not just careers.
We must develop artisans, not just analysts.
We must reward creators, not just consumers.
*HR ACTION PLAN: What Every Serious HR Leader Must Do Now*
1. Push for Industrial Alignment:
Demand that government and corporate policy makers invest in real sector jobs.
Partner with manufacturing associations and trade zones to align skills development.
2. Champion Productivity Metrics:
Measure workforce impact in terms of output, transformation, and sustainability, not just hours logged or leaves approved.
3. Create a Blueprint for the Next Generation:
Redesign graduate programs to prepare young Nigerians for productive work, not just employment.
4. Advocate Beyond the Office
HR must become a voice in national policy, insisting on investment in manufacturing, energy, logistics, and education-to-industry pipelines.
5. Stay Rooted in Reality
Avoid the trap of building HR strategies for a fantasy economy. Focus on solving real problems for the real Nigeria,power issues, informal employment, manufacturing decline, and productivity gaps.
*HR Must Build the Nigeria We Want*
GDP rebasing is not a celebration. It’s a diagnosis. A diagnosis that tells us we are counting more things but not necessarily doing more valuable things.
And if HR doesn’t rise as a nation-builder, our workforce will remain underemployed, unproductive, and uninspired.
The time for professional HR is now. The time for impact HR is now. The time for industrial-minded HR is now.
Let this rebased GDP be the rebirth of your HR thinking.
Not just bigger numbers. Bigger minds. Stronger hands. And a workforce ready to build, not just work.
ODC Global Consultant Limited – We Build People Who Build Nations.
