Following media reports that Andela has laid off hundreds of its junior engineers due to restructuring purposes, Nigerians took to Twitter to react. Among those reacting are employers of labour who are willing to offer employment opportunities to the former Andela techies.
Hey fam, if you’ve been affected by the Andela layoff and you’re in Nigeria, kindly fill out this form – https://t.co/WBy31MlDSU. Thank you. Kindly RT for visibility.
— Uncle Celestine (@cyberomin) September 17, 2019
Celestine Omin once worked at Andela until he left in October 2018 to have a brief stint at Paystack as an Engineering Manager. He now works independently and is asking the laid-off junior engineers to fill out a form; apparently for possible employments.
[READ: Andela is laying off 420 engineers as it refocuses strategy]
Very skilled but expensive: It should not come as a surprise that many companies are willing to offer instant employment to Andela’s former junior techies. The very fact that they have gone through Andela and garnered useful tech skills is enough to excite any employer. However, just as they are skilled, the techies are also quite expensive; maybe too expensive for the average Nigerian employer. Andela is known to pay its employees very well.
As Nairametrics reported, Andela said it has already made arrangements that will enable those affected by the layoffs to get easily get new jobs. So, finding new places to work may never be a problem for the techies. Instead, the problem for them will be about selecting the right employers who can considerably measure up to Andela.
In the meantime, more Nigerians have continued to react to this development. Konga’s former CEO, Shola Adekoya, said the development is a blessing in disguise because many small businesses are going to benefit from it.
Come back a few years from now and many SMEs (born and unborn) will thank @Andela for the gift of engineering talents they just released into the market.
Much joy will come later when you see them hold their own in the industry and create problem solving products.
— Shola Adekoya (@Sholaextra) September 17, 2019
Even Andela’s Co-Founder (Iyinoluwa Aboyeji) who has since left the company, tweeted he is gladdened by the idea of fresh tech talents being released into the ecosystem. He urged Nigerian companies to really take advantage of this development.
https://twitter.com/iaboyeji/status/1173907321170386944
[READ: Bill Gates identifies one major challenge facing the Nigerian economy]
