Nigeria it will be!

Although I did not yet receive a formal, written confirmation about my placement, VSO Netherlands called with VSO Nigeria and they gave a spoken confirmation of my placement. Nigeria is a very hierarchic and bureaucratic country and it seems that the person who should sign the letter is currently away. So no-one can sign. But anyway, it seems like it will be fine and I will be really moving to Nigeria in February!

 

Many things are still very vague. I expect most things to become clear only once I started working. I know I will be working as a volunteer manager and training advisor in the National Graduate Volunteer Program. This program offers young people the chance to work as a volunteer. They work mainly in education, helping to improve the quality of education. At the same time, they also gain skills and tools which can help them to improve their chances for employment.

 

Nigeria seems to be a very interesting country. As VSO writes: Nigeria is dynamic, vibrant, infinitely interesting, frequently frustrating, but ultimately, when you contribute to addressing Nigeria’s several development challenges you are contributing to the vision of a world without poverty.

 

Some facts about Nigeria’s development situation:

• Nigeria has a lot of natural recourses, including petroleum, gas, tin, iron and many more. Petroleum and petroleum products account for 95% of the country’s export. But, agriculture is still the major employer of the country.
• Nigeria accounts for 14% of sub-Sahara Africa’s GDP and is the second African economy after South Africa.
• Nigerian economy is still growing, average 6,5% a year.
• Nigeria experiences a high level of youth unemployment, which rose from 21.1% in 2010 to 23.9% in 2011, with rural unemployment at 25.6%. Unemployment is highest amongst youth aged 15-24 years.
• Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with a quarter of the continent’s extreme poor. More than 100 million Nigerians (64%) live on less than € 1,50 a day.
• Nigeria has 10% of the world’s children out of school. Adult male literacy is 75% and female illiteracy is 57%.
• In Nigeria the under-five mortality is 157 per 1000 live births (makes it 946.000 under-five deaths a year). This makes it 10% of the world’s child and maternal deaths.
• Religion is important in Nigeria, the amount of Muslims, Christians and people having traditional believes vary per region. Kwara state, where I will be working, has about as many Muslims as Christians.
• Nigeria has an HIV prevalence of 3.1%

 

In short, if no progress is made in Nigeria, the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved in Africa.

 

So, I expect Nigeria to be a country full of challenges, but also a country where my new colleagues and I can really fight poverty.

 

To be continued!

 

 

BTW, for those of you who are worried about safety, I will be living in Ilorin (a bit south and more west of Abuja, the red dot in the middle) while most problems are in the north. To give you an idea of the size of the country; that is as close as Enschede is from Milan.