The private sector in Nigeria has suffered a major setback in recent weeks following the mass resignation of workers seeking greener pastures in the US, UK and other first world countries.
Many Nigerian nationals in the technological space, including software and hardware engineers, system integrators, etc. and the service sector, including accountants’ education, insurance, etc have resigned their jobs and received either work or study visas to relocate out of the country.
Nigerian students are also migrating out of the country to restart their educational journey due to the prolonged ASUU strike or to acquire a second degree. Nigerian Medical doctors are also suffering the brain drain and relocating out of the country for better working conditions.
By the numbers
According to a UK Home Office report, Nigeria after India were the second highest recipients of UK’s work visas between December 2019 to June 2022. The report stated that “Nigerian approvals had increased by 11,854, a 303% level change from 3,918 in December 2019 to 15,772 in June 2022, making Nigerians the second highest recipients.”
Of the 722,962 non-immigrant visas issued by the United States in June, Nigerians were the highest recipients, with 6,915.
Why this is happening
The major pointers because Nigerians (between the ages of 25 – 45) are relocating out of the country include heightened insecurity, unemployment, rising inflation, poor infrastructure, etc. More so, international companies are presenting Nigerian techies with more interesting offers than local companies.
What this means
The migration of workers poses an enormous threat to local companies as they struggle to replace the talents they lost to these countries. In trying to replace the talented workers, local companies might suffer a drop-in quality service as seen in the banking sector in the last few weeks.