Telecom operators in Nigeria are disturbed over the mass exodus of telecom experts from the country. According to them, this may lead to poor quality of services if not addressed as competent hands are resigning their positions in telecom companies to travel out of the country.
They made their concerns known at the ICT Growth Conference held in Lagos yesterday.
Before now, reports had it that the ‘Japa‘; syndrome had hit the banking sector, as many tech guys in banks were leaving in droves, leading to many of the financial institutions having incessant technical problems. The outcry from the telecom operators confirms that the exodus of professionals cuts across every sector of the economy.
According to the Executive Secretary of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Mr. Ajibola Olude, over 2,000 telecom experts have left the country this year and many are still in the process of leaving. This, he said, could begin to affect the quality of the telecom networks if there are fewer competent hands to handle network issues.
What they are saying
Speaking at a forum in Lagos, Mr. Olude said: “While we have been talking about the problems of multiple taxations and the high cost of Right of Way in the telecoms sector, a new challenge is coming up and that is the issue of brain drain in telecoms. Many competent hands are leaving the country for greener pasture abroad. In the course of this year alone, over 2,000 have left and many are still going to leave. We have to do something; the government has to do something in this regard to encourage Nigerians to stay.
Describing the issue as a serious concern for the telecoms industry, the Chairman of Mobile Software Solutions Limited, Mr. Chris Uwaje, said the government would have to put in place the right infrastructure that can keep young Nigerians engaged and give them hope for a brighter future in the country. “The government is currently blind with regard to the digital brain and is only concerned with revenue generation. Those who are ‘japaing’–I would want Nigerians to look for another word for the exodus of its human capital because it sounds like a joke but this is a serious issue—are leaving because the government has failed to provide the social infrastructure they need to survive.
“If Nigeria had built telecommunications knowledge Parks and put thousands of youths there, many of them can be working for foreign companies from there; that is outsourcing. They don’t have to run out of the country to work for foreigners. They will be doing that here and earning in foreign currencies. We need the government to build these Parks to encourage our young ones to stay.”
What you should know
- A number of socio-economic factors are pushing young Nigerians out of the country. According to experts, these include insecurity, high cost of goods and services, and unemployment amongst others.
- It is, however, believed that the exodus of some professionals is also creating opportunities for many unemployed who could not travel out of the country.