Nigeria pays steep economic price as skilled citizens flee abroad
The continued loss of high-skill citizens to developed countries means Nigeria is paying a steep economic price and endangering future local productivity required to sustain the economy.
Recently, Nigeria has witnessed an uptick in the number of trained skilled workers migrating to other countries, particularly the Western economies in Europe and the Americas.
Many of these emigrants are graduates trained in Nigerian universities, which are subsidised by the government. Many of these migrant workers take with them years of training and skills to foreign countries.
“When good doctors leave the country, mortality rate increases. And the people that are leaving the country are also leaving with their families, which is another pipeline of the talent pool,” Funbi Matthew, business management and human resource professional said.
“Both in the immediate, you are losing talent and for future production, you are also losing talents.”
Matthew further added that there is going to be a shortfall in the quality of leadership that will help to make the Nigerian system better, since talents that study abroad end up staying back and do not import the knowledge there.
Similarly, Jennifer Oyelade, director of Transquisite Consulting, an international human resource consultancy said rising insecurity is also one of the biggest stumbling blocks stopping Nigeria from retaining its best talent.
“Ultimately it will also affect foreign investment into Nigeria; if there are no capable hands to see it through to completion; investors will take their business to other countries such as Ghana where their infrastructure is more favourable to their needs,” Oyelade added.
Africa’s biggest economy may be among the poor counties in the world but it is known to have the best young and bright minds. And many of these bright minds have considered leaving the country or have left for better education, jobs, and security
According to a survey of 1,600 adult Nigerians conducted between April 26 and May 10, 2017 by Afrobarometer, a pan-african research network, more than one in three Nigerians (35 percent) say they have considered emigration.
Also, nearly half (45 percent) of adults say they plan to move to another country within five years, by far the highest share among 12 countries surveyed across four continents, a 2018 Pew Research Centre survey shows.
Most of these talent fights are usually from the technology, science, engineering, and the medical field, known as jobs of the future.
In a recent tweet, @jajaphd, a Nigerian self-funded Master’s of Science (MSC) student of nursing decided to take up an M.SC course as it would guarantee him higher chances of getting a job as a nurse.
“My friend advised me to take a detour - study nursing so that I’m guaranteed a job, work for a few years to repay my loan, and then return to study whatever I really wanted when the stakes are not so high. It was the single most valuable advice I received in 2018,” he tweeted.
Nigeria’s unemployment challenges may continue to worsen as it has been predicted that its workforce will double by 2050.
According to US Census Bureau International Data Base (IDB), a global demographic data provider, the estimated working age (15-64) population of some developed countries like South Korea, Japan, Spain, Germany, China, Russia, and Italy will reduce by 27.3 percent, 26.3 percent, 25.4 percent, 21.0 percent, 19 percent, 18.3 percent, and 14.4 percent respectively in 2050 while Nigeria’s will increase by 120.8 percent.
“The policies within the large environment that these talents live in and the culture of the organisation within which they work impacts or influences how people are happy about their work,” Matthew said.
A recent United Nation (UN)’S World Happiness Report 2021 showed that Nigerians are sadder than ever as its ranking dropped by 31 places to 116 positions.