im not sure if that budget surplus was the first in africa - check again i belive bostwana has done that iand its happened a couple of times in in kenya

On Budget Surplus and Poverty.
I appreciate William Gumede's misgivings about a country having so much money as a result of macroeconomic manipulation while the vast majority of the citizens are poor. Nigeria has for the first time, a well publicised oil windfall running into billions of dollars; the country has forced its banks to become bigger; overhauled its pension system; introduced a national health insurance scheme and embarked on the largest construction of power plants in its history.
But there's not been a single new house built purposely for anyone earning less than 100,000 naira ($1=130) in all of Obasanjo's eight years, we don't have a social security scheme. Education is not free beyond primary school, the road network is in shambles. So Nigerian intellectuals are wondering: when are these reforms going to trickle down? How can you keep talking about huge foreign reserves, close to 50 billion dollars when there's recurring brownouts all over Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt (our own equivbalent of Jo'burg, Cape Town and Durban, if we could call them that).
I have read your book : Thabo Mbeki and The Battle For The Soul of The ANC and I know where you're coming from. You are at the left of centre and you are worried that Mbeki's probusiness, pro-west policies has not resulted in vast job creation, etc. The problem, I think in Nigeria's case, is the capacity to efficiently utilise the money put on social projects in full. Social infrastructure projects need careful monitoring; otherwise, in Nigeria's case, you end up losing the money as they enter the pockets of a few.
I have not answered your question; I know that SA's skills gap needs urgent attention but Africa's legacy of low human capacity keeps feeding on itself....