An Urbanization Perspective on Human Capital Development

Many years ago, myself and my cousin used to spar on the number of latest songs we listened to. Sometimes, I was ahead, other times he was ahead. But all of that changed when I gained admission into University of Ibadan and he, into University of Lagos. My cousin was ahead by far. I didn't know "Akon" the Senegalese-American for more than 3 months after his "Trouble" debut album.?It was my cousin who informed me about Akon at the family new year party.?

You see, this story is not so much about music than it is about the importance of socializing factors involved in the development of human capital. When we talk of human capital, factors such as education and health comes to the mind of the academic. But the layman thinks it's only about education. The traditional

equation for Human Capital includes; health and education in order of importance.?However, the real question is whether these two factors are enough for the ideal development of anyone??

The fact remains that what we read in books or hear from teachers or even on the job trainings often require that we apply them. But when everyone does the same thing everywhere, there is really no room for advantage or growth. That brings us to innovation. While we all need the first principles, we only have an edge when we build products or ideas upon first principles. History proves that it is not the principles themselves, but the interactions, rebuttals, criticality and bouncing of ideas that leads to new ideas and innovation.?

Many product managers get improvement ideas from their teams and using tools like design thinking. Artisans improve their craft when they have demanding customers or patrons. What makes a great fashion designer is not just the training he or she received in fashion school, but the demands placed on their talent by the customer and this applies for white collar jobs also. Our interactions matter as much as our health and education in terms of developing our human capital.?

Hence, we have to revise the human capital development equation to include urbanization. Thus, the equation will now include; Health, Urbanization and Education, in that strict order.?

I am sure social scientists will express some discontent on the way urbanization has been borrowed in this context. But I will explain.?

Urbanization is stated as a movement phenomena, but it is more of a socializing concept in it's content. And it has to start early in the life of anyone, including children. They need access to quality social interactions early on in life to improve their overall human capital overtime.?

Bill Gates did not just gave access to computers early on. He had access to Paul Allen. The same way Steve Jobs was able to just cold-call Hewlett-Packard co-founder, Bill Hewlett. Warren Buffet was exposed to stocks early on in a social way.?

Urbanization is critical for the spread and sharing of ideas. Train rides, ICT's meetings, conferences, and other events give rise to interactions that are necessary for cross-fertilization of ideas.?

While every human requires a certain level of well-being to go through education, the ideas they get from books and educational material are better appreciated when they share and include the perspectives of other people.?

Meanwhile, urbanization in this age and time cannot be restricted to city centres and agglomeration. Traditionally, urbanization has been defined based on movement of people. But the socio-economic intention of such movement has often been neglected.

People move to urban areas for more opportunities. Yet, these opportunities are not on the floors or in the air of the city. These opportunities will be accessed through people. What does that mean? It means the contact of people is most likely the most important factor in accessing opportunities or facilitation of innovation. Yet, we don't have to come close these days to be innovative.?

The use of ICT's has ensured real time access and processing of information. And the gap between the information have's and have not has narrowed more than ever in the history of humanity. Hence, we can propose urbanization as a result of ICT's where opportunities and services that were once restricted to typical urban areas will be accessed in typical rural areas.?

This has serious and critical implications for human capital development, where it brings the quality of human capital close to par across various states in Nigeria. There was a time you had to wait for people to return from Lagos to know the latest on social trends. Today, Davido's Timeless album is being played in Mambilla Plateau as soon as it dropped.?

Imagine a farmer having access to trains to meet his customers in different parts of the country. Imagine the use of internet in rural areas to virtual meetings where they can understand the latest agricultural practices at scale. A farmer who is mobile enough to see the markets he supplies is likely to be more ambitious than the one who just produces for the sake. The same logic applies to value-chain players who can access these true state of agricultural systems real time. They can plan better.?

In order to build a new knowledge economy in Nigeria, we must ensure that we build structures that facilitate social exchange in addition to producing adequate health and educational interventions.?