Informality to productivity: the lessons Nigeria can learn from Britain guilds, merchants and the future of work
Nigeria does not have a shortage of people who work. We have a shortage of productive work. Every morning, millions of Nigerians trade, farm, build, repair, transport, cook, manufacture, code and provide services. They work long hours and demonstrate extraordinary resilience. Yet too much of this economic activity remains trapped in low-productivity, informal and fragmented […] The post…
Nigeria's economic landscape features a significant number of workers, but the productivity of their labor is lacking. Every day, millions of Nigerians engage in various economic activities, yet much of this work remains informal and unproductive. The challenge is to transform this informal economy into one that generates more value from every hour of labor.
Historically, Britain has offered a relevant example. Centuries ago, the country saw the emergence of guilds and craft institutions, such as the Merchant's House of Glasgow and the Trades House of Glasgow. These institutions focused not only on who worked but also on skills, standards, apprenticeships, professional identity, and the organization of economic life.
Over time, Britain adopted various measures such as industrialization, company law, apprenticeships, professional bodies, labor regulation, workplace standards, social insurance, and financial institutions to create a productive economy.
The lesson for Nigeria is not to recreate medieval guilds but to build an institutional framework that organizes skills, capital, labor, and markets effectively. Nigeria's informal economy should be seen as a valuable asset rather than an embarrassment. Informal workers already possess economic agency, but they lack the necessary infrastructure to scale that agency.
To move from survival enterprises to productive enterprises, Nigeria should rethink what formalization means. Formalization should provide tangible benefits, such as access to recognized certification, digital business identity, affordable finance, insurance, modern equipment, apprenticeships, and corporate procurement. Nigeria already has a strong apprenticeship culture that should be upgraded rather than replaced.
A modern Nigerian apprenticeship should combine practical experience with technical standards, digital skills, financial literacy, health and safety, management, artificial intelligence, and formal certification.
Historically, Britain's guilds recognized, standardized, and connected skills to markets, making them economically powerful. Nigeria's productivity debate should focus on how work is designed and delivered, considering the economic operating system. By organizing workers into productive networks, sharing equipment, and facilitating collective purchasing, Nigeria can increase productivity.
Technology can play a crucial role in enhancing productivity. AI can help small retailers forecast demand, satellite data can assist farmers in optimizing production, digital diagnostics can improve automotive repair, digital design can enhance manufacturing, and digital payments can create transaction histories that unlock finance.
The missing middle in Nigeria lies between informal micro-enterprises and large corporations. By implementing policies that help scale small businesses, Nigeria can achieve better jobs, industrialization, and productivity growth. This may involve creating new sector-based institutions, such as "Productivity Guilds," which provide skills, certification, apprenticeships, standards, finance, technology, and market access.
Written by urgent.news from Nairametrics's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
