Rethinking Job-Based Incentives in a Broken Economy By Abidemi Adebamiwa

Rethinking Job-Based Incentives in a Broken Economy: In Nigeria today, when a job opens up, it’s not just a vacancy—it’s a lifeline. For the graduate selling books by the roadside, the mechanic’s apprentice dreaming of a better life, or the mother managing three kids on one income, work is more than employment.

It’s dignity, stability, and the beginning of a different story. So naturally, when the government says it’s giving companies tax relief if they hire more people, it sounds like a smart and compassionate move.

But beneath that hopeful surface lies a critical question: What kind of jobs are we actually encouraging? Because jobs in name only—jobs that offer nothing more than a daily struggle—don’t solve the problem. They stretch it out.

The new Nigeria Tax Act 2025 offers companies incentives for expanding their payrolls. In principle, it’s a welcome idea. But we must pay attention to how companies are responding in practice. It’s easy to print offer letters and list names. It’s harder to provide work that transforms lives.

I’ve spoken to people who were “hired” just long enough for their employers to qualify for benefits, then quietly dropped. I’ve seen companies cut salaries into pieces just to stay within a threshold, all while smiling for the cameras and tax boards. Some create roles that sound good on paper but leave workers with nothing to hold onto—no pensions, no training, no path forward. And yet, they still manage to access substantial tax waivers. While the exact value per company remains shielded by weak transparency rules in our tax system, it’s clear that collectively, these incentives amount to millions, often without a matching benefit for the workers they’re meant to help.

Globally, we’ve seen this behavior play out. In America, a giant like Amazon once pocketed state subsidies meant for job creation while automating away thousands of warehouse roles. In India, multinational firms labeled contract cleaners as full-time employees to meet incentive conditions. In Brazil, a national payroll tax cut shrank the public purse while employment stagnated. South African firms learned to game youth wage subsidies by cycling young workers in and out of the system, never keeping them long enough to build anything lasting.

Now, Nigeria is at risk of importing not just the policies, but the loopholes too.

If we want tax relief to make a real difference, we need a different lens. A job is not just a headcount. It’s a commitment to pay fairly, to provide training, and to care. If a company hires 50 people at ₦35,000 per month, strips them of benefits, and calls that growth, it’s exploiting the very people the government claims to help.

Our people don’t need temporary fixes. They need careers they can build on. They need a sense of direction. Most importantly, they need to feel that this economy is being shaped with them in mind, not just balanced on spreadsheets behind closed doors.

That’s why we must raise the bar. Tax breaks should go to firms that are building, not just hiring. That means offering secure contracts, professional development, health support, and, yes, livable wages. We should be asking: Who did you hire? How long did they stay? What did they learn? How has their life changed?

This isn’t about punishing business. It’s about asking businesses to partner in progress, not just profit.

If we fail to do this, we’ll end up giving billions to companies who do the bare minimum, while the streets get louder, the queues get longer, and the trust gap between people and government grows wider.

The irony is that many Nigerians don’t even want handouts. They want to work. They want to be part of something. And when someone says “we’re hiring,” they want that to mean something real. Not a stunt. Not a statistic. Not a footnote on a tax filing.

There’s still time to fix this. We can design smarter incentives that reward real outcomes. We can audit the process, demand transparency, and elevate the standards. We can make hiring meaningful again.

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about companies or taxes. It’s about people, and whether the system sees them as human beings or economic tools. OYONEWS

Let’s choose the former. OYO NEWS

Abidemi is the Managing Editor of Newspot Nigeria