The increasing exodus of Nigeria’s brightest talents overseas has seen remittances steal oil’s shine as the economy’s largest contributor to foreign exchange earnings. The emigration of human capital, however, is not without its demerits forcing a rethink whether Nigeria’s biggest export should, in fact, be its productive populace.
Nigeria received $22 billion in 2017 from its citizen in the Diaspora; the money received accounts for about 7 percent of its 2018 Gross Domestic Product, but experts remain concerned about the repercussions of the nation’s ‘sale’ of its more productive workforce. “This is not helping us from an economic view as we lose people with valuable skills,” Andrew Nevin, chief economist at PwC, noted on his twitter handle Tuesday last week.
In 2017, the number of Nigerians seeking greener pastures abroad stood at 1.3 million, representing a 190 percent upsurge from 448,500 in 1990, according to figures from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).
According to Enase Okonedo, dean, Lagos Business School, retaining Nigeria’s best minds within the country to help pursue growth and prosperity is essential, considering the country is at a critical stage of economic development.
For the dean, the relative size and quality of human outflow is an important consideration in discussing the issue. “I think in the long run, regardless of how many remittances come to Nigeria, the nation would be at a disadvantage,” she said.
The economy has been improving, albeit slowly, since the 2016 recession, but Nigerians are leaving in pursuit of better livelihood. Youths are not very optimistic about prospects in the country and are lured by a developed nation with high capital and less labour hence in need of highly skilled foreign labour to support their economy. Mariam, 26, a self-employed fashion designer with a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management, is in an advanced stage of leaving for Canada. “Young people leave for education, better life and to experience a new culture,” she told BusinessDay.
Already, the brain drain is beginning to cause a headache for headhunters who have to find suitable replacements for young professionals leaving the shores of the country. “Immigration schemes are not open for everybody but are designed to select the best hands in Nigeria, and they are causing a shortage of human capital,” a consultant in a Lagos-based Human Resources Consultancy, told BusinessDay on condition of anonymity.
“I can recall a business owner telling me his biggest competitors for human capital are not fellow
Nigerian companies but Canadian firms,” the source said. Given the serious implications, Okonedo believes a better performing economy would improve the situation.
“In a way, it is tied to economic growth. If living conditions, job situation and infrastructure improve, people would come back home,” she said but added that it would take a soothsayer to tell how fast the situation can be reversed.
The United Nations noted in its 2013 International Migration policies document that some “developed countries have adopted points-based systems to select highly qualified migrants in occupations facing labour shortages,” thereby sieving the crème-de-la-crème of the originating countries.
The question remains: is the emigration situation a win-win for Nigerians home and abroad, given the huge support that remittance provides to the country? Boniface Chizea, MD/CEO, BIC
Consultancy Services, explained that Nigerians leaving for first world countries is not the best situation for the country, however, it would benefit Nigeria to make more productive use of the remittance.
