Brain drain distorting production chain, says NECA

AS more Nigerians continue to seek greener pastures abroad, the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association ( NECA) has said that the challenges of the country’s best hands leaving the country to work overseas are creating a lot of distortion in the production chain of organisations.

Director- General of NECA, Adewale- Smatt Oyerinde, in an interview with The Guardian, said once best hands leave, the challenges to start the process of recruitment again and get people in, is also giving most organisations a lot of headaches.

He said this is currently creating problems for organised businesses because of the investment put in equipping them and the recruitment process. Noting that globally, there is a concept of mobility of leaving, stating that as people are leaving, a lot of foreigners are also coming to Nigeria to get employment.

However, he said the challenge is when the country’s best brains are leaving, it creates problems for the nation because they are leaving to help develop the economies of the already developed nation, which perpetually is keeping the country disadvantaged.

“So, why are those people leaving, the issue of unemployment continues to increase and that is because the businesses that are already on the ground, the environment itself is also squeezing them. It is squeezing them in such a way that even their capacity to produce is not maximised. “So, if a business is operating at 50 per cent capacity utilisation some people who have are not in a position to employ many other individuals because they cannot just produce at maxima. If you look at those issues, they are all situated in the regulatory environment, the legislative environment and the fiscal and monetary policies that have not favoured the organised private sector for many years.