A former Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Neboh, has urged Nigerian nurses and other healthcare professionals to embrace entrepreneurship, warning that salaries alone are no longer sufficient to guarantee financial security in the country’s harsh economic climate.
Neboh, who is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University on the Niger, gave the charge during the launch of the Primecare Nursing Practice (PNP) Programme organised by the GEANCO Foundation, during which he said healthcare workers must develop entrepreneurial skills if they hope to thrive while contributing to improved healthcare delivery across Nigeria.
He added, “The reason it is so important to think about entrepreneurship, no matter what profession you are in, is that only those who develop that mind-set, live by that mind-set and operate by that mind-set will survive the Nigeria and the world that is evolving today,” Neboh said.
Reflecting on Nigeria’s economic transformation over the decades, the former Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria Nsukka, recounted how modest salaries in the early 1980s were enough to sustain families and even fund overseas travel, unlike the present situation.
“I remember the first salary I earned when I came back to Nigeria in 1981. My wife and I each earned N200 as youth corps members. With N400, we took care of our family and still started a small poultry business. At that time, a brand-new Volkswagen cost less than N3,000.
