INTRODUCTION TO PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

 

 INTRODUCTION TO PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

 

Professor Mustapha Mukhtar

Bayero University, Kano-Nigeria

mmukhtar.eco@buk.edu.ng

http//:www.mustaphamuktar.blogspot.com

 

Introduction

Health is one of the major determinants of human socioeconomic development. It is also one of the major components of human capital development as well. Individual health is composed of many parts ranging from biological, social and physical wellbeing.  Health is a fundamental human right. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants everyone: the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. Health is the state of complete emotional and physical wellbeing. Healthcare exists to help people maintain an optimal state of health. In 1948, the World Health Organization WHO defined health as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and nor merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Healthcare is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. Health care is a fundamental human good because it affects our opportunity to pursue life goals, reduces our pain and suffering, helps prevent premature loss of life, and provides information needed to plan for our lives. Society therefore, has an obligation to make access to an adequate level of care available to all its members, regardless of ability to pay.

 

Primary Health Care (PHC)

Primary health care is a means of protecting this right. Primary health care: is essential care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the self-reliance and self-determination: it forms an integral part both of the country’s health system, of which it is the central function and main focus, and of the overall social and economic development of the community. It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and the community with the national health system, bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process.(Alma Ata 1978 primary Health Care Conference, Geneva; WHO, UNICEF)

"PHC is a whole-of-society approach to health that aims at ensuring the highest possible level of health and well-being and their equitable distribution by focusing on people’s needs and as early as possible along the continuum from health promotion and disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care, and as close as feasible to people’s everyday environment." WHO and UNICEF. A vision for primary health care in the 21st century: Towards UHC and the SDGs.

PHC entails three inter-related and synergistic components, including: comprehensive integrated health services that embrace primary care as well as public health goods and functions as central pieces; multi-sectoral policies and actions to address the upstream and wider determinants of health; and engaging and empowering individuals, families, and communities for increased social participation and enhanced self-care and self-reliance in health. PHC is rooted in a commitment to social justice, equity, solidarity and participation. It is based on the recognition that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction.

For universal health coverage UHC. (UHC means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care across the life course) to be truly universal, a shift is needed from health systems designed around diseases and institutions towards health systems designed for people, with people. PHC requires governments at all levels to underscore the importance of action beyond the health sector in order to pursue a whole-of government approach to health, including health-in-all-policies, a strong focus on equity and interventions that encompass the entire life-course.

PHC addresses the broader determinants of health and focuses on the comprehensive and interrelated aspects of physical, mental and social health and wellbeing. It provides whole-person care for health needs throughout the lifespan, not just for a set of specific diseases. Primary health care ensures people receive quality comprehensive care ranging from promotion and prevention to treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care as close as feasible to people’s everyday environment.

The basic points in the above definition are:

i.                    Essential health care: Group of functions essential for the health of the people given at lower level of health service. E.g. Medical care, MCH, school health, environmental health, control of communicable diseases, health education, referral, etc.

ii.                  Scientifically sound: Scientifically explainable and acceptable socially acceptable methods and technology: intervention should consider the local value culture and belief.

iii.                Universally accessible: Because of the inequitable distribution of the available resources, the services are not reachable by all who need them. Only a few can afford or within the reach to use them, while the majority are excluded from the service. Therefore, PHC being  health care as close as possible to where people live and work, guarantee universal accessibility

 

Evolution of Primary Health Care

The definition of health, in the Charter of WHO as a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being is demanding and irrelevance to states struggling to provide even minimal care in adverse economic, social and environmental conditions.  

i.                    Despite health being a fundamental human right the health status of hundreds of millions people in the world was unacceptable.

ii.                  In spite of the tremendous efforts in medicine and technology, the health status of people in disadvantaged areas of most countries remained low.

iii.                The organized limited health institutions failed to meet the demands of those most in need who are usually too poor or geographically or socially remote to benefit from such facilities (Accessibility).

iv.                The health services often created were in isolations, neglecting other sector (Agriculture, Education, Water Supply etc), which are relevant to the improvement and development of health.

v.                  Health institutions stressed curative services with insufficient priority to preventive, promotive and rehabilitative care.

vi.                The community has already been given the opportunity to play an active role in deciding the types of activities they want and have not participated in the actual services they receive.

The above reasons led WHO and UNICEF to evaluate and reexamine the existing policies in 1978, Alma-Ata, and the concept of Primary Health Care emerged.

 

An important preparatory meeting was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), ranging from large, internationally active humanitarian organizations to small religious groups active in only one country, were able to review the final draft of the actual conference document. After such extensive preparation, delegates from 134 nations of the world, plus representatives from those NGO‟s officially accredited by WHO, met during September 1978 in what was then known as Alma Ata, USSR (now Almaty, Kazakhstan). In that historic meeting, the nations of the world committed themselves and their resources to the achievement of health for all the year 2000 through PHC

 

The Alma Ata Conference

In 1978, at an international conference convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) in Kazakhstan, the 134 members of the World Health Assembly of World Health Organization ratified the Declaration of Alma-Ata (World Health Organization, 1978). The declaration committed member states to supporting Primary Health Care (PHC) as a policy to achieve the WHO definition of health as a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 2006a). PHC was grounded in the concern for social justice created by the devastation in Europe and rapid decolonization of Asia and Africa following the end of the Second World War.

 

The motivation to support the policy arose out of the belief of most of the national governments of the victorious countries that it was imperative to eradicate pervasive poverty and ensure human rights. PHC was built on the principles of equity in access to health services and the right of people to participate in decisions about their own healthcare. Underpinning these principles was support for preventive and promotive health services, appropriate technology, and intersectoral collaboration. It has been argued that PHC began a shift in health paradigms from a definition of health as limited to biomedical research, the provision of health services by professionals, and institutional care in hospitals and sub health units such as health centers to a broader focus that included the social determinants of health.  This was a visionary concept that pushed the conventional understanding of how health improves from the realm of biomedicine into a realm of social, economic, and political investigation and action.

 

To implement the declaration, WHO declared “Health for all by the Year 2000,” creating a goal for national governments that coincided with other UN efforts to address the global and political situation in the 1970s. These efforts included recognizing that health was an integral part of other national development strategies, addressing peoples’ basic needs, and calling for a “new economic order” that was focused on restructuring the world economy to ensure more participation for the developing countries

 

Extracts from Alma Ata Conference

• The Conference strongly reaffirms that health, which is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, is a fundamental human right and that the attainment of the highest possible level of health is a most important world-wide social goal whose realization requires the action of many other social and economic sectors in addition to the health sector.
• The existing gross inequality in the health status of the people, particularly between developed and developing countries as well as within countries, is politically, socially, and economically unacceptable and is, therefore, of common concern to all countries.
• The people have a right and duty to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their health care.
• Primary health care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound, and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. It forms an integral part both of the country's health system, of which it is the central function and main focus, and of the overall social and economic development of the community. It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family, and community with the national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work, and constitutes the first elements of a continuing health care process.
• An acceptable level of health for all the people of the world by the year 2000 can be attained through a fuller and better use of the world's resources, a considerable part of which is now spent on armaments and military conflicts. A genuine policy of independence, peace, détente, and disarmament could and should release additional resources that could well be devoted to peaceful aims and in particular to the acceleration of social and economic development of which primary health care, as an essential part, should be allotted its proper share.

Objectives of Primary Health Care

1. To make health services accessible and available to everyone    wherever they live or work.

2. To tackle the health problems causing the highest mortality and morbidity at the cost that the community can afford

3. To ensure that whatever technology is used, must be within the ability of the community to use effectively and maintain

4. To ensure that in implementing the health program, the community must be fully involved in planning the delivery and evaluation of the services in the spirit of self reliance

5. To increase the programs and services that affect the healthy growth and development of children and youth.

6. To develop community satisfaction with the primary health care system.

7. To support and advocate for healthy public policy within all sectors and levels of government.

8. To provide reasonable and timely access to primary health care services.

9. To apply the standards of accountability in professional practice.

10. To establish, within available resources, primary health care teams and networks.

11. To support the provision of comprehensive, integrated, and evidence-based primary health care services.

 

Importance of Primary Health Care

Primary health care is the first level of healthcare that forms the foundation for the formal health care system. Provision for this can be through a variety of settings from community clinics to private practices. Primary health care helps to promote health and prevent illness. It also helps to identify, treat, and refer patients to specialists when appropriate

According to the World Health Organization, primary health care can address most of an individual’s health needs throughout their life. This includes prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. With proper usage, primary health care is also able to provide empowering education. This ensures that people are able to take timely health-related decisions about themselves and their family members. Also, it reduces deaths and disability

PHC is the most inclusive, equitable, cost-effective and efficient approach to enhance people’s physical and mental health, as well as social well-being. Evidence of wide-ranging impact of investment in PHC continues to grow around the world, particularly in times of crisis.

Across the world, investments in PHC improve equity and access, health care performance, accountability of health systems, and health outcomes. While some of these factors are directly related to the health system and access to health services, the evidence is clear that a broad range of factors beyond health services play a critical role in shaping health and well-being. These include social protection, food systems, education, and environmental factors, among others.

Primary Health Care is also critical to make health systems more resilient to situations of crisis, more proactive in detecting early signs of epidemics and more prepared to act early in response to surges in demand for services. 

Access to Primary Health Care therefore, is a way of achieving the Universal Health Coverage (all people have access to the health services they need)

 

Theories of Wages Determination

Theories of Wages Determination

Professor Mustapha Muktar

Introduction

A factor of production is an economic term that describes the inputs used in the production of goods or services in order to make an economic profit. Factors of production are the resources people use to produce goods and services; they are the building blocks of any economy. Economists they are basically four: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship.

The term “land” in economics is used in technical sense. It includes the surface of the soil and all those natural resources which are the free gift of nature like farm land, forest, fishing areas and mineral wealth (such as coal, gold, iron, ore, tin, petroleum, etc). Land resources are the raw materials in the production process. These resources can be renewable, such as forests, or nonrenewable such as oil or natural gas. The income that resource owners earn in return for land resources is called. The return to land is rent.

Labour is human mental and physical effort that is used in production. In other words, it is human energy and brain that is used in any production process. The number of people willing to work is called the labour force; the total number of hours they are willing to work is called the supply of labour. Supply of labour may also mean the supply of labour services available for production.  Labor resources include the work done by soldiers, teachers and engineers. The return to labour are salaries, wages, bonuses  and other payments

The capital stock consists of all those produced goods that are used in the production of other goods and services. Factories, machines, tools, computers, roads, bridges, houses and railways are a few examples. According to Marshall “capital consists of all kind of wealth, other than free gift of nature, which yields income”.

The income earned by owners of capital resources is interest. The pure return on capital is the amount that capital could earn in a favorable investment at equilibrium. When expressed as a return per N1 worth of capital invested, the result is called the interest

Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which is often initially a small business. The people who create these businesses are called entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur is a person who combines the other factors of production - land, labor, and capital - to earn a profit. The most successful entrepreneurs are innovators who find new ways produce goods and services or who develop new goods and services to bring to market. Without the entrepreneur combining land, labor, and capital in new ways, many of the innovations we see around us would not exist. The reward to entrepreneur is profits.

Theories of Wages Determination

Subsistence theory of Wages determination

Subsistence theory of Wages determination was put forward by economists prominent among them is David Ricardo and Karl Marx

Assumptions:

According to Ricardo, this theory is based on the following two assumptions:

 1. Population increases at a faster rate.

 2. Food production is subject to the law of diminishing returns.

According to this theory, wages of a worker in the long run are determined at that level of wages which is just sufficient to meet the necessaries of life. This level is called the subsistence level. The classical economists called it the neutral level of wages. In this way, the pro-pounders of the theory believed in the bargaining power of the workers. In such a situation, trade unions play an important role in increasing wages.

Wages of labour are equal to subsistence level in the long run. If wages fall below this level, workers would starve. It will reduce their supply. Thus, the wage rate will rise to the subsistence level. On the other hand, if wages tend to rise above the subsistence level, workers would be encouraged to bear more children which will increase the supply of workers, which in turn will bring wages down to the subsistence level. It can be shown with the help of the following figure:

In Fig. 1 demand and supply of labour has been measured on OX-axis and wage rate on OY-axis. OW is the subsistence level of wages. At OW wage rate supply of labour is perfectly elastic. Since, supply of labour is perfectly elastic, wage rate neither can fall below OW nor can increase above the level of OW. Although demand increases from DD to D₁D₁ yet the wage rate remains the same at OW.

Limitations of the theory

One Sided Theory: This theory examines the wage determination from the side of supply and ignores the demand side.

Pessimistic: Subsistence theory of wages is highly pessimistic for the working class. It presents a dark picture of the future of the society.

This theory is based on the assumption of long run. It does not explain the determination of wages at in the shortrun

The theory assumes that all the workers get equal wages. As we know, the workers differ in their productivity, and hence, wages have to be different

 

 

Marginal Productivity Theory of Wages Determination

This theory was first of all propounded by Thunnen. Later on, economists like Wicksteed, Walras, J.B Clark etc. modified the theory. The marginal productivity theory states that labour is paid according to his contribution in production. A producer hires the services of labour because he possesses the ability to contribute in production. If worker contributes more to production he is paid more wages and if he contributes less, wages also will be low. Marginal productivity of labour refers to change in total revenue by putting one more labourer, keeping all the other factors constant.

As a result of competition between employees for labour and between workers for employment, a wage-rate is determined that is equal to the marginal productivity of the labour-force.

Assumptions:

1. All labourers are equally efficient.

2. Constant technology

3. Perfect competition prevails both in factor and product markets.

4. There is full employment of resources

5. Law of diminishing marginal returns apply on the marginal productivity of labour.

6. Labour is perfectly mobile.

Under the conditions of perfect competition, wages are determined by the value of marginal product of labour. Marginal product of labour in any industry refers to the amount by which output increases when one more labour is employed.

Value of marginal product of labour is the price which the marginal product can fetch in the market. Under the conditions of perfect competition, an employer will go on employing more labourers but, due to the operation of the law of diminishing returns, the marginal product of labour will diminish until a point comes when the value of the increase in the product will be equal to the wages paid to that labourer.

The marginal productivity theory can be explained with the help of the following figure:

In Fig. 2 number of labourers is measured on OX-axis and wage rate on OY-axis. ARP and MRP are average revenue productivity and marginal revenue productivity curves respectively. The equilibrium wage rate will be determined at a point where both the ARP and MRP are equal to each other.

In the figure, the equilibrium wage rate (OW) is determined at point E because at this point both the ARP and MRP are equal. The firm at OW wage rate will employ OX number of labourers. If the firm employs more workers than OX, it will have to face more losses or fewer profits. Therefore, the ideal situation for a firm is to employ workers up to the point where ARP and MRP are equal.

Limitations of the Theory

Unrealistic Assumptions:

The foremost defect of the theory is that it is based on unrealistic assumptions like perfect competition, homogeneous character of labour and others

The theory fails to take into account that labour is also a function of wages. Less productivity may be the effect of low wages which adversely affects the efficiency of labour and in turn reduces the labour productivity.

The marginal productivity theory is one sided. It takes into consideration only the demand side and ignores the supply side. It also failed to determine Wages since it only guides the employer to employ workers up to the level where their marginal productivity equals price. But, it does not tell how the wages are determined.

 

Modern Theory of Wages Determination

Modern theory of wages regards wages as a price of labour and all other prices determined by the usual supply and demand analysis. According to this approach, wages are determined by the interaction of market forces of demand and supply.

Demand for Labour:

The demand for labour comes from the entrepreneurs as it is used for the production of goods and services. Thus, the demand for labour depends upon the productivity of labour i.e., the higher the productivity of labour, the greater will be the demand for it from employers. Thus, demand for labour depends upon the marginal productivity of labour; since the marginal productivity of labour will slope downwards after a stage, the demand curve of labour will also slope downward.

Supply of Labour:

Supply of labour in an economy depends upon both economic as well as non-economic factors. Economic factors influencing the supply of labour comprises of existing employment, desire to increase monetary income, bargaining power of the labourers, size of population, income distribution etc. while the non-economic factors consist of family affection, social conditions, domestic environment etc.

Psychological factors also affect the supply of labour. It is only due to the psychological factors that a worker decides how much time he should devote to work and how much to leisure. Moreover, the supply of labour also depends on the elasticity.

The supply of labour for a firm is perfectly elastic, so, the firm at current wages can employ as many workers as it wishes. On the contrary the nature of supply of labour for an industry is not infinitely elastic. Thus, it cannot employ more and more labourers at the current wage rate. The industry can do so by attracting labourers from other industries by offering them higher wages.

According to the modern theory, wages are determined at the point of intersection of demand and supply for labour.

Factors that Determines wages in reality

1.       Demand and supply conditions of labour

2.      Length of training and working experience

3.      Trade or Workers Union

4.      Social Importance of Job

5.      Government and or employers Policy

6.      Other factors

STEM EDUCATION AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR ACHIEVING ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION IN NIGERIA

STEM EDUCATION  AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR ACHIEVING ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION IN NIGERIA

Professor Mustapha Muktar

Department of Economics

Bayero University Kano

muktaronline@gmail.com

http//:www.mustaphamuktar.blogspot.com

Outline

•Introduction

•Concept of  Diversification

•Economic Diversification

•Need for Economic Diversification in Nigeria

•STEM Education

•STEM Fields

•Target Sectors for Economic Diversification through STEM Education

•Challenges to STEM Education in Nigeria

•Conclusion

•The Way forward

Introduction

•Nigeria is the most populated African nation with a population of about 160 million. The nation is made up of people of diverse cultures and religions endowed with many natural resources scattered in different parts of the territory

• At independence in 1960, the main source of the nation’s revenue was agriculture and extraction of solid minerals. The discovery of petroleum in the country in the 1960s and the blooming of petroleum in the global market led to her over dependence on petroleum and a gradual but consistent neglect of agriculture and other sectors of the economy.

•Today petroleum accounts for over 90% of Nigeria’s export revenue and over 80% of the government’s budget Most of this petroleum revenue has been mismanaged through corruption, and myopic short term economic programmes. The situation has left the economy of the country at the mercy of the vagaries (Jekwe, 2015)

•With the continuing decline in global oil prices coupled with decline in crude oil output due to the activities of militants in the Niger Delta region,  declining in the demand of the crude oil from our major importers, and sourcing for alternative energy by other crude oil importing countries left Nigeria with no other choice than diversification of its economy from mono product economy to diverse one

•Nigeria’s intrinsic potential lies beyond oil; harnessing this potential has become an imperative given the expectations of lower for longer oil prices based on recent trends

Diversification

•Diversification entails the creation of many productive avenues such as in agriculture and industry, by the introduction of a greater variety of agricultural and industrial produce, or in terms of creation of entirely new productive sectors

•It is the process whereby a growing range of economic outputs are produced, It can also refer to the diversification of markets for exports or of income sources.

•To diversify an economy first, there is need to give priority to the development of agriculture and industrial raw-materials locally

•Initially industrial capability of the country in producing exportables will be greatly enhanced and food security would also be achieved

•Secondly, policies must be deliberately shifted away from inward-looking industrialization around the home market towards systematic efforts to export industrial products

•Third is marketing and export promotion strategy such that marketing will help to export the manufactured products to earn foreign exchange

Economic diversification

•According to Anthony and Chukwudi (2015)Economic diversification refers to broadening the range of economic activities both in production and distribution of goods and services

•It is a process that helps and immunes a country from volatility of a single commodity. Economic diversification is generally taken as the process in which a growing range of economic outputs is produced

•To Samuelson (1968, in Ojefia 2016) economic diversification is an act of investing in a variety of assets. Its benefit is that it reduces the risk, especially in the time of recession, inflation, deflation, etc.

•Economic diversification has been used as a strategy to transform the economy from using a single source to multiple sources of income spread over primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, involving large sections of the population

• By implication economic diversification implies a large-scale of structural transformation in the way value is crated in an economy and the way it is distributed across the different sectors

Economic Diersification

•To insulate the economy from the risk of being vulnerable to a single commodity (oil) as oil price is volatile (it exhibits shocks)

•To create jobs that can raise the standard of living of an average Nigerian: Oil and Gas jobs account for less than 1% of total employment and the working population can no longer be absorbed by the public sector

•To prepare for life beyond the oil resource. Thus, diversification has been the subject of numerous plans and initiatives by various governments

•To explore and tap opportunities and potentialities from other sectors of the economy (agriculture, manufacturing, education, construction and tourism)

STEM Education

•STEM is the abbreviation for Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

•It may include curriculum for career clusters other than engineering and computer science it can include healthcare science, agricultural science, biotechnology, and food and nutrition science

STEM Fields

•Science is  the systematic study of the nature and behavior of the material and physical universe, based on observation, experiment, and measurement, and the formulation of laws to describe these facts in general terms (Science, 2012)

• Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment (Technology, 2012)

• Engineering is the art or science of making practical application of the knowledge of pure sciences, as physics or chemistry, as in the construction of engines, bridges, buildings, mines, ships, and chemical plants (Engineering, 2012)

•Mathematics: is a group of related sciences, including algebra, geometry, and calculus, concerned with the study of number, quantity, shape, and space and their interrelationships by using a specialized notation (Mathematics, 2012).

Target Sectors for Diversification

Agriculture

•Besides being a potential source of export revenues, agriculture is estimated to account for close to 60% of GDP and 50% of employment making it a sector with a key multiplier impact

•The agricultural sector has the potentials of reducing food insecurity, providing raw materials to industries and feeding the west African markets as well

•STEM Education can help transform agriculture through research and development of modern methods of farming, high yielding variety seeds, modern implements, as well as modern animal husbandry,  horticulture, fishery and other in the sector

•By and large information technology which is a product of STEM education can be used to transform the sector by providing information on inputs prices, output prices and better marketing 

•Manufacturing sector in Nigeria have a vast potential for contributing to growth and development due to abundant labour force coupled with the agrarian nature of the economy. If well organized it would create more jobs and wealth for the citizens

•It will produce what we consume as a nation and generate foreign exchange by exporting  surpluses

•STEM Education if implemented well have the capacity of transforming the sector, this can be achieved through scientific researches and innovation and implementing the findings to develop manufacturing

•STEM also have the potentials of transforming relevant researches into a discovery and problem-solving arena. This encourages creativity and hence growth and development

• The technological process of conversion and transformation of raw materials into varying degrees and classes of goods and services for human consumption holds the ace for prosperity and national development

Chemical and nonmetallic mineral products

•Diversification of downstream sector of petroleum will develop petrochemicals, fertilizers, methanol and refining, industries relevant in both industrial and consumer products which Nigeria currently imports

•STEM Education if enhanced will produce labour force and facilities that can be able to transform and handle the sector locally thereby reaping all the benefits associated to the mining sector

•The development of the mining sector means a reduction in imports and increase in exports and consequently and increase in the foreign earnings and availability of products from the sector

Information Communication Technology (ICT)

•Information communication technology is one of the issues that occupy the international economic order. With globalization, the world is now integrated into an entity

•STEM Education is the backbone of ICT worldwide, therefore if well adopted, it has the propensity of tapping the potentialities and making Nigeria among the competitive economies of the world

•With a large population of young urban people, Nigeria has the opportunity to leverage mobile technology to generate improved social and economic outcomes across the consumer sector through e-commerce, e-banking, mobile banking and mobile insurance and other electronic based economic activities

Trade and Commerce

•Trade accounts for 17% of GDP and 23% of employment and has recorded average real GDP growth rate of 5.48 in Nigeria(LCCI 2016)

•The current retail distribution range from the traditional street trading and open market, to neighborhood groceries and now modern shopping malls

• The potential of this sector can be improved with effective STEM Education, through modernization of trade to conform to global best practices, this can manifest in trading online, making use of electronic payments, electronic marketing, and the design/utilization of business software's that are consistent with Nigerian socioeconomic and demographic experiences

•STEM Education if well embraced will overhaul Nigerian trading practices and make the goods and services traded to be competitive and to penetrate the west African markets as well as the global market at large

Healthcare and Biotechnology Industry

•Health has been defined as a complete state of physical, spiritual, emotional and social wellbeing and not just merely the absence of infirmity (WHO)

•A healthy population  can create wealth, an unhealthy population cannot deliver a healthy economy. Through STEM Education scientific achievements would led to longer, healthier, better lives

•And a healthier society means a more productive society that can harness resources and diversify the economic base

•STEM is central to biotechnology, molecular and robotic engineering which are importance in improving access to health care, provision of food and medicine necessary for human survival 

Challenges to STEM Education in Nigeria

•Inadequate Funding

•Inadequacy of instructional materials

•Teaching methodology

•Lopsided curriculum

•Inadequate STEM tutors

•Poor remuneration and improved work conditions of STEM tutors

•Poor Infrastructures

Conclusion 

•Economic Diversification is the widening of the economy to create opportunities for diverse activities to create a broad based economy

•It provides job for wide spectrum of people and stabilizes the economy against economic fluctuations of commodities, and sustains the developmental prospects of nations

• Nigeria needs to use STEM education as a conduit pipe to diversify the economy to create job opportunities and satisfy the basic needs of her large population and sustain the quest for development

•Economic Diversification revolves around STEM Education  and it should be exploited in Nigeria

•Science and technology is universal. It is in every sector. There is no sector that science and technology does not influence

•Money can not  buy technology it has to be acquired through STEM education and  skills

The Way Foward

•Improvement in funding Infrastructures and teaching materials is recommended by the respective governments

•There is the need for the curricula to address issues that are typical to integrate STEM education in all aspects of learning, in this way, We can rework education curriculum and re-engineer the structural system in such a way to give emphasis to STEM

•Tutors should be carried along in education policy and be trained and well compensated to be able to deliver STEM effectively

•The nation needs to invest its resources through technological development, skill acquisition and human development, and provision of economic and social infrastructure for her to be on the path of economic diversification (this can be achieved through STEM education)

References

• Aigbedion, I., & Iyayi, S. E. (2007). Diversifying Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry. International Journal of Physical Sciences, 2, 263-270.  http://www.academicjournals.org/IJPS http://www.academicjournals.org/ijps/pdf/pdf2007/oct/aigbedion%20and%20iyayi.pdf

•Anthony, I. Chukwudi, E.E. and Wilfred, I.U. (2015) Impact of Non-Oil Sector on Economic   Growth : A Managerial Economic Perspective, Problems and Perspectives on   Management, Volume 13, Issue 2, 2015

•Engineering. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved May 20, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/engineering

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