The current talent exodus from Nigeria, popularly called ‘japa’ (a Yoruba word for “run quickly”), is creating career opportunities as jobs left by many in different sectors are being filled by those who are still in the country.
Human resource professionals/experts interviewed by BusinessDay said the talent exodus has presented many people in the country the opportunity to upskill, reskill and reposition themselves in order to get quicker career transition – a development that could help to reduce the country’s high youth unemployment rate at 42 percent.
“Majority of those that have left the country are those in mid-level jobs roles that are strong in technical skills,” said Olamide Adeyeye, a Lagos-based human development researcher. “And this is putting pressure on the junior or low-level roles to quickly come up and operate at the mid-level.”
According to him, the ‘japa’ trend creates opportunities such as increasing the ratio of jobseekers to job opportunities, facilitating quicker career transitions, as well as improving technical competence and productivity skills.
Jennifer Oyelade, director of Transquisite Consulting, said it is not just about getting technical skills but they should also add a lot of business intelligence to their current skill set.
“Doing a course in an area that understands the Nigerian economy is what will allow professionals to leverage. This will allow them to slot into any sector because data is life; it can translate into tangible products and information that can result in sustainable growth,” she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 accelerated the demand for technical skills like software development and engineering, machine learning, data analysis, digital marketing, financial analysis and information technology, search engine optimisation and programming.
But in Africa’s biggest economy, these skills are limited in supply as only 45.1 percent of Nigerian youths between the ages of 15 and 35 years have knowledge or skills of word processing, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
This means that the remaining 55 percent of them who don’t have knowledge of word processing are yet to understand the relevance of technology in this 21st century, making them unemployable in the job market.
A report by the International Finance Corporation highlights the existence of a skills gap, out-dated curriculum in engineering programs and lack of opportunities for students to apply skills learned in the classroom in most African countries including Nigeria.
“Organisations at the moment don’t have the financial capacity to do trial and error. What they need is data-led methodologies that say if we implement A, B and C, it would result in D, C and F; that is what they are looking for,” said Oyelade.
Read also: Whether you “Japa” or not, C.A.P.A is essential to navigate your financial life
Highly educated and skilled Nigerians have been migrating to other countries as a result of the harsh economic conditions in the country that have been worsened by high inflation, unemployment, and insecurity, among others.
Many have relocated to countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States through study and work visas.
According to the British government, the number of Nigerians granted student visas increased by 222.8 percent to 65,929, the highest in four years in June 2022 from 20,427 in the same period of 2021.
The number of Nigerians who got skilled work visas grew by 109.1 percent to 15,772 in June 2022. Canada’s study permits for Nigerian increased by 30.3 percent to 13,745 in 2021 from 10,550 in 2020.
This has forced some companies, particularly in the banking industry, to reduce the education criterion for their Graduate Trainee Programmes recruitment process to a second-class lower grade (2.2) from second-upper class (2.1) and first-class grades.
“A record number of people are relocating abroad from their home countries. Many of these leavers are those with very good jobs and enviable career prospects,” Taiwo Oyedele, West Africa tax leader at PwC Nigeria, said.
Oyedele added that people can view the migration as an indication that doomsday is looming and freak out or can see it as a rare opportunity to skill up, position themselves and step into the exciting career roles that are being left behind.
Tunde Olagunju, HR manager at Greensprings School, said there is a war for talents. “For people who have not had a chance before, this is their time.”
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