Funmi Ogundare
The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, National Universities Commission (NUC) and different stakeholders are anticipated to converge on Abeokuta, Ogun State, on October 15, to discover how Nigeria can re-engineer its schooling system to drive industrialisation, innovation, productiveness and job creation.
The stakeholders will take part within the fifth version of the For the Love of the Country (FLOC) convention and symposium, themed, ‘Building a Prosperous Future: Re-Engineering Education and Driving Industrialisation for Innovation, Productivity and Jobs’.
The symposium is predicted to deliver collectively policymakers, teachers, enterprise leaders, growth specialists, civic leaders and representatives of the schooling and industrial sectors to study sensible methods for constructing a extra productive and affluent Nigeria.
The convener of FLOC, Atinuke Odjenima, stated the 2026 version was designed to shift the nationwide dialog from figuring out Nigeria’s challenges to constructing the capabilities required to handle them.
She stated the symposium would interrogate how Nigeria might develop an schooling system able to producing the talents required by industries, remodel these expertise into productive enterprises and high quality jobs, and strengthen establishments to maintain innovation and productiveness.
“The time has come for Nigeria to move beyond conversations about what is wrong and focus more deliberately on building the capabilities required to change our reality,” Odjenima stated.
“This year’s symposium is about asking practical questions: What kind of education system do we need to produce the skills our industries require? How do we turn those skills into productive enterprises and quality jobs? And what institutions must we strengthen to sustain that progress?”
According to her, the selection of Ogun State because the host of symposium 5.0 was deliberate due to the state’s mixture of academic establishments and industrial actions.
She famous that universities, polytechnics and technical establishments within the state function alongside manufacturing vegetation, agro-processing hubs and different industrial developments, creating a possibility to study how schooling and business might work extra carefully collectively.
“We chose Ogun state because it offers an important context for this conversation. Here, education, skills development, manufacturing and industrial activity exist within the same economic ecosystem,” she stated.
“It gives us an opportunity to examine what is working, what needs to change and how we can scale those lessons across Nigeria. The future we want will not be built by slogans; it will be built by people with the right skills, productive industries and institutions that work.”
Odjenima stated Nigeria should transfer from discussing the long run to constructing the capabilities wanted to ship it, stressing that schooling, business and establishments had complementary roles to play within the course of.
“Education must produce relevant skills, industry must create opportunities for those skills, and our institutions must provide the foundation for productivity and innovation,” she added.
The 2026 symposium, Odjenima stated, would study how Nigeria might strengthen the connection between schooling and business, re-engineer its schooling system to reply to the altering financial system and develop a workforce geared up for trendy business.
Other areas of focus would come with strengthening native manufacturing and constructing establishments able to supporting innovation and productiveness.
She added that Ogun State’s financial profile, which incorporates actions in development supplies, meals processing, prescribed drugs, fast-moving shopper items, logistics and lightweight meeting, made it a sensible setting for the discussions.
“The convergence of schooling and industrial exercise mirrored the central proposition of symposium 5.0: that schooling produces functionality, whereas business converts functionality into jobs, productiveness and prosperity.
FLOC, the Convener, famous, is a civic and nation-building platform, with the target of selling constructive dialogue on governance, public coverage, financial growth and nationwide transformation.
“The platform brings together political economists, policymakers, business leaders, development experts, civic leaders and other stakeholders, based on the belief that nation-building should involve citizens and not be left to government alone,” she said.
Odjenima stated the occasion would offer stakeholders with a possibility to transfer past broad discussions and interrogate sensible methods for constructing a productive financial system supported by related expertise, robust establishments and sustainable industries.
