Gone are the days when Nigerians did just anything to get paid employment. The poor state of the economy has opened their eyes.
Most employees are now abandoning their less paying jobs as the pay no longer takes them home.
"Resign and start your own business" is now a buzzword and many Nigerians are keying into the trend.
Massive resignations are the order of the day. Many people who did so recently, complained that paid employment made no sense anymore when their companies increased prices of products but slashed their wages.
Speaking to Economy&Lifestyle, Mr. Adejumobi Oluwatobiloba, who recently resigned as a sales representative at a beverage company in Lagos, said he immediately floated a logistics businesses, which he is comfortably running at his own pace.
He said: "I was a sales representative in an organisation. It was terrible the way they treated us after increasing the price of their products. We demanded an increase in our salaries. Instead of yielding to our demand, the management rather slashed our salaries and started paying us half of what we used to earn.
"The money we are being paid before, hardly foot our bills let alone now it has been reduced to half. So I immediately know it was time to start my own thing and I ceased the opportunity.
"Now, I have invested my savings in a bus which I am using to run a logistics business. It wasn't easy at first but because I was determined to start alone, I succeeded.
"There is nothing like being your own boss. You decide when to and when not to go to work and get enough rest and peace of mind. I am happy I made such a decision."
Mrs. Ogba Helen, a foodstuffs seller said: "If I had known selling foodstuffs was more lucrative than teaching, I would have left the profession a long time ago.
"I was a teacher for 10 years. The private secondary school I taught last showed me hell. I was given three classes and taught from 8 a.m to 4 p.m. I was paid N40,000 despite all the stress, there was no incentive or an iota of respect.
"I had to quit the job and made a container shop where I am selling foodstuffs. I started early this year and it has not been bad at all.
"In a month, the minimum profit I make is N80,000. I prefer this to screaming from morning to night without any appreciation at all.
"Many qualified teachers are leaving the profession for other meaningful jobs especially those in private schools, because of low salary, lack of respect in a very tedious job."
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For Mrs. Sandra Michael, who had to quit her job in a bank, "People outside think if you are working in a bank you have arrived. When I got the banking job as a cashier, I was on top of the world. I used to walk as If I were working in the Central Bank. My salary was less than N70,000 per month.
"As the prices of things increased daily, I realised that the peanut I earned cannot sustain myself and my family. The little I saved, my husband added to it. I left the almighty banking job.
"Then I started a Point of Sale (PoS) payment business after acquiring some training from workshops. I also included selling home electrical appliances and phone accessories to the business.
"I now have two shops in the space of two years. If I knew that being self employed is this profitable, I would have started a long time ago."
Confirming the increase in self employment in the country, National Bureau of Statistics latest Nigeria Labour Force report showed that many working age citizens are self-employed.
NBS said:"In the third quarter of 2023 (Q3'23), 87.3 per cent of employed Nigerians were primarily self-employed with the remaining 12.7 per cent being primarily engaged as employees.
"Disaggregation by sex, 90.5 per cent of women were engaged as self-employed while 84.2 per cent of men were self-employed.
"80.3 per cent of employed people in urban areas were self-employed this is lower when compared with 94.5 per cent of employed people in rural areas."
