Matloob Ilahi: “Everyone has a role to play towards job creation”

With over eight years of experience abroad in higher education as lecturer and trainer, Matloob Ilahi landed in Mauritius three years ago to help the country better develop its potential. For three years, Matloob Ilahi worked as a lecturer for a well-known higher education institution. This reputed trainer in Pakistan has wide ranging experience in business strategy development, business analysis, organisational performance management and international economics. Currently, he is working as a freelancer assisting various organisations to improve their performance and is all set to launch a new venture soon. Matloob believes that Mauritius as the best place to do business and the best destination in Africa for it. “Mauritius has a mature economy and mature financial sector. A well established political system and relatively good infrastructure suitable for doing business. People are better informed as compared to other African countries with high speed internet connectivity. Nevertheless, learning is not up to the mark. Mauritius really needs to be converted into a knowledge economy. There are certain areas needing a lof of improvement. Students in schools, colleges and higher education are not encouraged to think about their vision, take initiatives and plan in the long term. Lack of entrepreneurial culture and employability skills are inexistent. The education system should promote entrepreneurial thinking, innovative thinking and long term thinking,” he shares. During the last three years, as a lecturer, he has been emphasizing extensively on thinking out of the box. His favourite sayings are: “Whatever you do, do it with excellence... Make an impact... Think about being an employer not an employee.” “I have always stressed on the fact that it is important to apply knowledge. Only learning basics will never help,” he says.

Workshops and seminars

Matloob Ilahi has a dream of educating the youth and business people. All workshops and seminars will be launched this year. “Through the media, I want to coach and educate young people and business people. I will try to organise innovative competitions to develop innovative ideas. The workshops will allow people to manage their skills, grow and improve their businesses.” The main theme which Matloob will be developing for students are entrepreneurial thinking to create more jobs, enhance understanding in the global economy. For business persons, it will be more on opportunities in the business environment, help them in getting rid of their weaknesses, developing competencies, helping them integrate, increased competitiveness as compared to other competitor nations and help them focus on critical areas in key sectors.

About Matloob Ilahi Matloob Ilahi has a Masters in Economics, MPhil in economics and finance. He is an ACMA (Associate member of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan). He has been working in top institutions in Pakistan.

Additionally, Matloob Ilahi has a strong vision for the future of Mauritius. He wants to help the government in job creation, bridging the skills gap. His actions also extends to developing new opportunities and finding solutions for social issues, helping business community to take advantage of the changing global economic environment.

Areas for job prospects

To have a better understanding of job science we need to think about the three levels of business activity. “In the past, the primary sector was the major job creating sector then the manufacturing boom came in to mop up masses of the workforce. Now, in 21st century, we are going through the third industrial revolution which has changed the science of jobs. Digitisation of the manufacturing sector requires an increasing number of service oriented jobs. Modern job prospects include: infrastructure projects, ICT, tourism, finance, health, fashion and entertainment.” When quizzed about the prosperous sectors in the coming years, he replies: “For a mature economy such as Mauritius, we need to have a look at recent trends in industry restructuring. We have witnessed a downfall in the traditional agriculture sector, it is now undergoing transitions. So in the future, we can see it reshaping into smart farming, an increasing number of people are getting conscious about organic food, health and fitness, renewable energy, financial, ICT, housing and building services, recreation and entertainment.” Governments across the world have to face the daunting issue of how to create jobs. “We cannot put all the pressure and blame the governments for not creating jobs. Everyone has a role to play towards job creation. Government can facilitate people in becoming self-employed. The government’s role is to assist young graduates as much as possible by developing opportunities for new business, redefining regulatory framework, offering low cost financing opportunities and making things easy and simple to start one’s own venture.”

Innovative entrepreneurs

The trainer highlights that we need to develop a culture of innovating entrepreneurial thinking, where everyone should be talking about it and this is not difficult. At school, college and university levels, there is a need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, by organising debates, competition, creating awareness, inviting prominent business individuals to deliver speeches on the subject, inviting youngsters to participate in business seminars and workshops to make them motivated towards entrepreneurial mindset. “Provide them with an environment where they can be driven to think about it. There are so many opportunities around us that youngsters can exploit by coming up with wonderful ideas. They need to be focused, choose one problem and find a solution,” he says.