Healthcare, technology and agriculture top Nigerians’ job rankings across regions

Healthcare, technology and agriculture have emerged as the sectors Nigerians want most across the country’s six geopolitical zones, with job preferences varying sharply by region and highlighting what analysts describe as six distinct labour market economies rather than a single national employment crisis.

The findings were disclosed by SBM Intelligence in its August 2026 report titled “Six Zones, One Crisis: What Nigerians say about jobs, skills and the risk of leaving.”

The report was based on a nationwide survey of 1,180 respondents across 21 cities in all six geopolitical zones and found that the sectors people consider most urgently needed differ significantly depending on where they live.

Nationally, technology ranked first with 14.4%, followed by agriculture at 13.2%, healthcare at 12.7%, manufacturing at 11.0%, and trade at 10.9%.

What the data is saying

Across the country’s six geopolitical zones, Nigerians appear to want different jobs, reflecting the productive strengths, economic constraints and opportunities within each region rather than a uniform national employment demand. SBM Intelligence argued that the pattern suggests Nigeria’s labour market is fundamentally regionalised.

• In the Southeast, healthcare emerged as the most urgently needed sector at 17.8%, ahead of technology (13.3%) and manufacturing (13.0%). The ranking points to strong demand for medical services alongside the region’s long-standing industrial and commercial base.
• In the Southwest, technology led with 16.6%, narrowly ahead of healthcare (15.4%) and education (15.1%), reflecting the zone’s concentration of digital businesses, startups and service-sector employment.
• The South-South ranked manufacturing first at 15.7%, followed by technology (15.0%) and trade (12.0%), indicating strong demand for industrial jobs despite the region’s dominance in Nigeria’s oil economy.
• The Northwest showed the clearest preference for agriculture, which ranked first at 22.6%, well ahead of healthcare (14.8%) and technology (14.4%). The report described the zone as an agriculture-first economy where farming remains the dominant productive activity.
• In the Northeast, agriculture also ranked first at 14.2%, with trade (10.2%) and healthcare (10.1%) following closely behind, making it the only zone where no single sector established a decisive lead.
• The Northcentral was led by technology (18.1%), followed by trade (15.0%) and healthcare (9.7%), though the report cautioned that the zone’s sample was heavily concentrated in Abuja and should not be treated as representative of the entire region.

SBM Intelligence noted that these preferences are not random. They reflect each zone’s productive base, deficits and aspirations, arguing that a region asking for healthcare is signalling weak medical infrastructure, while a region prioritising manufacturing is signalling industrial decline.

The report also found that priorities shift sharply between urban and rural communities.

What blocks work, and why the young leave

Beyond job preferences, the report found that the obstacles preventing Nigerians from finding work differ sharply across regions, creating what SBM Intelligence described as multiple labour crises rather than a single national problem.

Nationally, the biggest barriers were low pay (19.2%), lack of skills (17.5%), limited access to capital and credit (16.4%), lack of available jobs (15.2%), and poor infrastructure (8.9%).

• In the Southeast, the dominant problem was low pay (24.8%), followed by an absolute shortage of jobs (20.9%). The report concluded that the zone has a pay problem as much as a job problem, with many educated people forced into small-scale entrepreneurship because formal employment opportunities remain limited.
• The Northwest and Northeast were defined primarily by skills deficits, with 26.8% of respondents in the Northwest and 22.9% in the Northeast identifying inadequate skills and vocational training as the biggest barrier to employment. Insecurity was significant in the Northeast but was not the dominant constraint.

In the Southwest, respondents were more concerned about poor infrastructure (21.0%) and limited access to capital (20.0%), suggesting that power, transport and financing constraints are restricting business expansion and job creation.

What you should know

The findings come shortly after another SBM Intelligence report identified the 15 highest-paying healthcare jobs in Nigeria, reinforcing why healthcare emerged as a leading employment priority in parts of the country.

The report found that surgeons earn between N11 million and N17.8 million annually, cardiologists about N15.8 million, anesthesiologists around N12.3 million, medical doctors about N10.3 million, and psychiatrists roughly N10.2 million per year.

The regional pattern broadly mirrors Nigeria’s economic geography. Northern Nigeria remains the country’s major food-producing belt, supplying much of the staple foods consumed nationwide.

By contrast, the Southeast’s manufacturing ranking reflects the region’s industrial clusters around Aba, Nnewi and Onitsha, where leather, textiles, plastics, auto parts, footwear, bags and other manufactured goods are produced and traded across West Africa.