Japada: Foreigners scramble for Nigeria’s juicy jobs

By AYOOLA OLAOLUWA

Foreigners are daily leaving the shores of their countries for Nigeria in a desperate scramble for a piece of the nation’s largely untapped economic opportunities, Business Hallmark can report.

According to BH findings, while Nigerians in their hundreds leave the shores of the country on a daily basis in search of greener pastures abroad, foreigners are also arriving in droves in Nigeria to take up vacant and emerging highly skilled positions, as well as to explore the abundant natural resources that abound in the country.

Data obtained from the Ministry of Interior suggests that the number of visas-on- arrival (VoA) issued at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, has more than doubled since the policy was implemented.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari, it would be recalled, had on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, launched the visa policy, which allows travellers to commence the process of obtaining visa upon arrival into the country.

Nigeria is noted for lack of accurate and up to date data. However, according to the Lagos Passport Office of the NIS, the number of visas on arrival issued at the MMIA Lagos alone, grew from 38,000 in December 2018 to 53,644 in December 2022.

While the figure for 2023 is yet to be released, it was gathered that it surpassed the 80,000 mark at the end of September.

Efforts to get the official number of visas on arrival issued at the other four international airports in the country were not successful, though it was learnt the figures had more than doubled from the ones recorded in previous years.

BH, meanwhile, learnt that over 2.8 million foreigners visited Nigeria in 2022, with more than 500,000 coming through airports.

Likewise, the number of foreigners in Nigeria as at August 2023, officially stood at 1.9million, with more trooping into the country.

Our correspondent gathered that most of these foreigners visiting Nigeria are largely skilled workers of investors wishing to invest.

Mostly made of Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Lebanese, South Africans and German citizens, amongst others, the foreigners are said to be interested in the mining, maritime, consumer goods/products retail, automobile, construction, energy, oil and gas, health, and agric sectors.

For instance, the tourism and hospitality, manufacturing, mining and health sectors, especially the medical diagnostic business, have seen huge influx of foreigners.

Two of Nigeria’s biggest medical diagnostic centres, Mecure and Afriglobal, are owned by Indian businessmen. The two medical facilities, among several foreign owned outlets, offer reliable investigations for over 2,000 tests, from imaging and pathology to cardiac-care services.

Capitalising on the dearth of reliable medical services in Nigeria, foreign companies are also setting up hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, which need trained and experienced hands to manage in the country.

Some of the foreign owned medical facilities in Nigeria include Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital, owned by CFAO, a Japanese multinational company; Turkish-owned Nizamiye Hospital; Chi Pharmaceuticals, Cipla-Evans Pharmaceuticals, Vedic Hospitals and Primus International Super Specialty Hospital, all Indian-owned facilities, as well as the Lebanese-owned Alpha Beta Medics.

Apart from rendering world class services to their citizens in Nigeria, the medical facilities also provide medicare to wealthy Nigerians, who can afford it.

Most positions in these health facilities, especially the medical and technical staff, were recruited from their home countries.

An Indian MRI technologist at Afriglobal branch on Mobolaji Johnson Way, Ikeja, Lagos, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said he was recruited from the U.S, where he was collecting $53.56 an hour to come and man the MRI machine for Afriglobal in Lagos.

On why he decided to leave the U.S for Nigeria, the technologist blamed it on the high cost of living in the North American country.

“Though, I am currently paid a bit lower here in Nigeria ($52.59), I decided to come because of several reasons. One, cost of living in Nigeria is very low, compared to Chicago in the U.S, where I was coming from.

“While in the U.S, I was earning $53.56 per hour and I used to work officially for nine hours (overtime not included), that is $483 daily and $14,500 monthly.

“You think the money is huge, right? Wait until I break it down for you. Before I collect the money, 40% ($5,800) tax is deducted from source, leaving $8,700.

“I was paying monthly rent of $1,800 a month. By the time I add other expenses to it, I barely have a thousand left at the end of the month.

“Meanwhile, my family was staying in India. Apart from my wife and three children, I have seven other dependants, which include my father, mother and five siblings.

“For almost seven years, I was struggling to be financially stable. I even thank God I didn’t bring my family to the U.S to live with me.

“So, when I got the offer from Nigeria and compared the huge difference left after all deductions and expenses, I quickly accepted the offer.

“In Nigeria, I also work for nine hours at $52.59 per hour. Using the official rate of N788, my salary amounts to N41,440.92 an hour, N372,969 a day and N11.2 million per month.

“After paying tax of N1.1 million and other deductions, I am still left with about 7,000 dollars (N9.5. million).

“My feeding, accommodation and transport is less than $3,000. That leaves me with, at least, $4,000. Now, I can afford to send my children to the best school in India, even in Nigeria. Food is so cheap in Nigeria that I can afford to spend N5,000 ($5) on a meal three times ($15) daily in five star hotels like Sheraton and Marriot. The amount is a fraction of what I earn in an hour. Despite that, I am not that stupid. I try to save every penny I can save. I only give myself a treat once a week.

“Do you now see the reason I moved to Nigeria?”, the technologist asked our correspondent.

A member of the Indian community in Lagos, Sejal Ishita, who spoke to BH on the continued influx of Indian health practitioners into Nigeria, partly traced it to the huge fortune Nigerians spend on medical tourism abroad.

According to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Nigerians spend about $2 billion on foreign healthcare-related services.

Speaking on the development, Shejal Ishita said that the spending of millions of dollars on medical treatment in India by Nigerians due to inadequate health delivery sector has not gone unnoticed in the Asian country.

According to Ishita, in 2022, about 40 percent of all visas to India from Nigeria were for medical tourism and Nigerians spent about $520 million on medical expenses in India.

“But this scenario (traveling to India) is changing as the Indian government and private healthcare providers are now trying to bring medicare to Nigeria in order to benefit from its huge market.

“Apart from requiring huge equipment, it also entails the recruitment of well trained and qualified workforce from abroad because Nigeria cannot simply supply it with her 1/5,000 doctor to patient ratio.

“The market for health professionals in Nigeria is huge, very huge. That is why you see the daily influx of foreigners into the country”, he said.

He further added that many Indian companies and professionals are planning to set up in Nigeria following the success of some of their precursors.

Apart from the health sector, foreigners are also flooding the country to fill vacancies in technical and management positions, especially in fields, where local expertise is lacking.

In July, the management of Dangote Refinery confirmed that the company employed thousands of skilled workers from abroad to work in the refinery.

The management’s response was in reaction to an allegation that the company employed 11,000 skilled workers from India, while neglecting youths from Nigeria.

Reacting to the allegation, Dangote Group’s spokesperson, Tony Chiejina, said the report was written with malicious intent.

According to him, the magnitude of the project required a specialised skilled workforce from all over the world.

He revealed that while 6,400 Indians and 3,250 Chinese workers were among the skilled workforce, over 30,000 Nigerians were also engaged at the peak of construction of the refinery.

Findings revealed that foreigners from other countries like Singapore, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Germany, South Africa, South Korea and many others are currently employed in the nation’s transport, oil and gas, construction, telecommunications, lottery and mining sectors.

Apart from Indian citizens, Chinese citizens are daily flooding the country, taking on skilled and technical positions in the construction and manufacturing industries.

The Chinese citizens, BH learnt, are usually brought into the country by Chinese companies doing business in the country.

Apart from Julius Berger and Reynold Construction Company (RCC), Chinese firms like China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC), China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) and North China Construction Nigeria Limited (NCCN) are involved in the construction of massive railway lines, bridges, airport terminals, roads and dams projects.

While Nigerians dominate the firm’s workforce, it was observed that most sensitive positions in the technical and management departments are manned by Chinese.

The influence of the Chinese community is also massive in the mining sector. Chinese companies, it was learnt, have displaced the Lebanese and Syrian communities in the lucrative quarry business.

In the same vein, Chinese business concerns have taken over the nation’s solid mineral sector, with licences to explore and mine gold, lithium, copper, coal and other minerals.

“While they are highly mechanised, these sectors are also labour intensive. Apart from indigenous staff who constitute the majority of their manual labour force, most machines in the sites are operated by expatriates.

Owing to their daily influx into the country, the foreign community in Nigeria is said to have gone over seven million.

According to official sources, non African residents, like the Chinese community, have the largest number with over 1 million migrants, followed by the Indian community with over 300,000 population and the Lebanese community with around 150,000 residents.

The African continent is also represented, with Niger, Chad, Cameroun, Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana and South Africa, among others.

Citizens from Niger and Chad in the Northern part of Nigeria, and Benin, Togo, Cameron and Ghana in the Southern parts of the country are also said to be in the region of four million, with Niger alone accounting for over 2 million residents.

On the other hand, South African residents are largely set up in management and technical positions in South African owned banks, telecoms, construction and Cable TV companies.

With the growing proliferation of foreign companies in Nigeria, job opportunities for foreigners are expected to grow, especially in areas, where their technical skills are required.

“I don’t know what Nigerians are running abroad to do when opportunities abound here in Nigeria. Maybe because they are not seeing what we foreigners are seeing.

“In the whole of Africa, even in the world, Nigeria accounts for a large chunk of start-ups in the technology business.

“Even amidst the global economic headwinds that saw several big tech companies laying off workers in 2022, Nigerian startups attracted almost $2 billion.

“Virtually every Nigerian owns handsets. Millions make financial transactions daily. You think the providers are ghost? No, they are human beings like me with technical abilities for hire.

“Really, I think the driving force is the exchange rate of your currency. If not for insecurity, inflation and the forex crisis, why would someone earning over N1million a month abandon everything he had sweated for to go abroad? The day Naira appreciates, many Nigerians will prefer to come back home”, declared an IT worker from India.

However, an HR expert, Philip Odika, blamed the mad rush abroad on the absence of the right education and skills on the part of many Nigerians.

“Most Nigerians going abroad for greener pastures, even with the best of education, especially medical sciences degrees like medicine, nursing and pharmacy, won’t be able to practice for several years until they retrain or upgrade their qualifications.

“What most of them do to sustain body and soul before they get certified is care-giving jobs that pay between $10 to $15 per hour.

“It will take an RN (Registered Nurse) two years to be certified in the U.S. Meanwhile, many employers now prefer nurses with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), which takes four years to complete. Medicine takes much longer to get certified.

“Nigerians will be employed abroad, paid huge relocation allowance, and will need to get certified, which most times extend beyond two years while being paid regularly.

“No one in Nigeria will employ and keep paying you for years acquiring knowledge and doing nothing for him, knowing fully that you can leave him after spending millions to train him.

“A manager at GTBank recently told me how a staff the bank spent over N10million to train left without working for three months.

“That is part of what is fuelling the influx of foreigners into the country. Employers don’t have the time and luxury to train workers anymore. And if they do, they recruit them as trainees, placing them on low salaries until they complete their training.

“That’s why you see Nigerians complain of wide disparities in the treatment of foreigners and indigenes despite having the same qualifications.

“But a technical school graduate in, lets say, Germany or China will add more value than a Nigerian graduate any day. Most Nigerian fresh graduates or workers are ill-equipped. They mostly learn on the job”, Odika noted.