Economic experts and analysts have chimed in on the trending conversation, “japa”, which has seen a handful of the Nigerian labour force resign from their work, due to travelling abroad.
Experts have highlighted the benefits that this brain drain/japa syndrome could bring to the largest African economy, but not without its downsides.
In a recent Nairametrics article, human Resource managers reported massive resignations by employees in the month of July, with many more expected in August as many Nigerians seek to travel abroad for academic pursuit and ultimately in search of a better life.
According to the United Nations International Migration report, as of 2020, a total of 1.67 million Nigerians were international migrants around the world. While some analysts have hinted at the potential downsides effect of the brain drain on the Nigerian economy, some analysts have noted the possible benefits of such migrations to the source country and the international community as a whole.
Amongst the benefits highlighted by the experts include, increased diaspora remittances, an upgrade in remuneration for loyal employees, decline in the level of unemployment in the source country among others. However, on downsides, skill gap and decline in productivity were listed as possible outcomes.
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According to Olumide Adesina, an investment analyst at Quantum Economics, he noted that migration from Nigeria to other developed economies is beneficial to Nigeria and could help boost FX liquidity.
In the same vein, Opeoluwa Dapo-Thomas, an international market analyst noted that apart from the brain drain for the Nigerian economy, Nigeria tends to gain from the migrations. He said, “the mass migration does not affect the Nigerian economy so much, if we want to be statistical about it.
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In a statement by Chidi Nwafor, an analyst with a top investment house in Nigeria, he said that the source country has much to gain, when citizens travel abroad, which includes the increase in the amount of inflows through remittances.
On the flip side, Olatunde Idowu, a lawyer practicing in the United Kingdom had these to say; “There is a general feeling of lethargy, and lack of trust in the Nigerian project (if at all there is one). Many people, even those up to the age of 50 years are seeking to leave Nigeria with their families, and indirectly start their lives again in foreign countries. It will interest you to know that even those that seem not to be interested in “japaing”, are seeking ways of acquiring a second passport in order to have some level of insurance in the event things go south in Nigeria.
Samuel Bamidele, Head, research and Intelligence at Philips Consulting Limited, opined that the mass migration by Nigerians to other countries is a looming crisis for the source economy and a cause for concern. Although, it is important to note that this could bring in remittances into the economy, because people send in FX to their families, however, the impact of that inflow on the economy is a great question to be answered, he noted.
There’s no way to cut it – this is bad for Nigeria….we are a low producing country…cos we have few skilled workers, now among that few many of them are relocating – those replacing them are less skilled so that automatically means less productive output.
Secondly a Nigerian company with staff of 10 of which 5 leave / relocate and then they have to replace those 5 people has shown no growth or net new jobs – they still have the same 10 employees, that are now even less productive.
Net new jobs is when a company grows its staff numbers, not replace them to the same level.
Lastly consider the rate at which we add skilled labor to the workforce and how we add consumer demand yearly with a growing population – most of our graduates are garbage straight out of school…the few that are good, are the ones being poached abroad…leaving us with the garbage or the bottom pot candidates – we aren’t going anywhere like this and we should all be worried.
We need to encourage our best hands to stay and be productive – government socialist policies of trying to pay peanuts and expect good service delivery is delusional – people that have labored to be good at what they do expect to be paid fairly and live decently…only then can they create business ventures that employ others and create net new jobs and grow the economy.
The unskilled – need the skilled to guide them…but the skilled are being scared away in droves (japa) so you are now left with a situation of the blind leading the blind = poor productivity and ensuing mismanagement corruption, theft & poverty.
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© 2022 Nairametrics