As the Nigerian technology landscape gets consistently advanced, industry professionals have cried out to government to put measure in place to halt the export of talents otherwise popularly known in local parlance as the Japa syndrome.
Not a few Information and Communications Technology, ICT experts have expressed worry that the only thing that will not let the Nigerian ecionomy take a positive turn with a lightning speed, is the way tech talents leave the country in droves in search of better opportunities abroad.
The latest voice to cry out against this undermining movement is the Chief Executive Officer of of Reeltech Business Solutions Ltd, Mr Deji Olaofe .
Reeltech, a Microsoft partner in Nigeria, is a company that helps businesses in almost all sectors of the economy use technology to improve their work and make more money. It creates software and apps that make managing sales, products, and finances as well as customers, get easier.
Reeltech manages a wide range of talents to deliver results across sectors and according to Olaofe, the rate with which young talents leave Nigeria, if the government doesn't speed up measures, Nigeria's economic revival will be a pipe dream.
He said: "One of the challenges affecting the growing IT industry has always been the fact that talents in our industry are quite expensive to maintain, and they don't stay in one place. Once they learn a bit, they want to move forward. "Today, companies now come from abroad to recruit talent from Nigeria, knowing that they can fetch better IT talents here. To be honest with you, between last December and now, we have lost many talents who have been here since 2018. Whilst this is commendable for the talents as it results in bigger pay, a shortage of skilled manpower is also a challenge that we have to overcome by investing in training and development, which also bloats the overhead cost"he added.
Advising government on what to do, Olaofe added, The tech sector in Nigeria is a fast-growing one. Even the government is trying to move towards using technology to manage work processes of many of its parastatals, which is a great opportunity for the sector. In the past, most companies used to bring in experts to come and set up IT infrastructure or implement their software. Today, you can find those talents right here, among Nigerians.
"Now the situation is that companies abroad are coming to Nigeria to scout for IT talents. If there can be encouragement from the government, IT talents can help the economy grow and ensure that Nigeria benefits from the latest technologies.
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"The way to go about it is for government to build and fund learning hubs where people can acquire in-demand skills; invest in infrastructure that enables ease of business and recreate Silicon Valley in Nigeria by building tech parks and free hotspot zones for the youths and tech enthusiasts to access internet at every turn. It's not what the private sector alone can do. We can only be a willing partner to the progress.
" The government also needs to encourage IT hardware manufacturers with tax holidays as well as lowering entry barriers for new businesses desiring to register and do business in the country. This will improve the economy. We need to start making things like SIM cards, chips, artificial intelligence, and robotic devices. Some of the talents who left the country are mostly doing all that there. If the government shows sincere support, this Japa syndrome will be a kind that IT talents will use to gain exposure abroad and come back to invest. "If we have the facilities and the support here, they can also stay and create innovations that can put Nigeria on the map" he added.
