MASS ATTRITION AND THE EXODUS OF TECH TALENT

MASS ATTRITION AND THE EXODUS OF TECH TALENT

By Munachimso Ayo-Olagunju

you cannot build global talent by locking them up locally...

Emigration, human capital flight or the more recently embraced brain drain, is all the same thing. It simply means the emigration of highly trained and skilled labour from their home countries to other countries. The term brain drain was introduced in 1963 by the British Royal Society, which used it to describe the scientists and technologists who migrated from the UK to North America and Canada (Carolina, 2004). This phenomenon is not at all novel, as it dates back to the early 19th century when scholars and highly skilled individuals dared to leave their home countries and venture into the west in pursuit of better education, broader opportunities and

generally a better quality of life. A catalyst for this was usually the advancements and presence of basic social amenities in these host countries. As a result, it was often the pattern that the direction of the movement was usually from lessdeveloped countries, towards developed countries, with the UK and US being migrants’ prime destinations then and even up until now. It is often said you cannot build global talent by locking them up locally. Over the years, Nigeria has contributed its quota towards the global talent pool, putting us on a rank-worthy scale. The early 90s, which can be seen as the peak of Nigeria’s brain drain in the previous century was not

so rampant that it was barely noticeable. The migration pathway was opened to only professionals, mostly doctors and healthcare workers and there was some bit of consolation in the fact that a number of these departing professionals had it as a dream, the plan of returning to their motherland as ‘expatriates’, honing similar levels of training, experience and exposure. However, things have never been this dire so much so it has become alarming. The floodgates have opened and people across all age brackets and sectors are exiting the country in droves. The economic downturn, uninspiring governance, lacking social amenities coupled with insecurity amongst other challenges is responsible for the uptick in brain drain in recent times. Although millions remain unemployed, talents are re-evaluation their options and talking with their feet and two of the sectors that are hugely impacted are our health sector and the nascent tech industry

For context, between 2018 - 2019, the number of health practitioners in the country reduced from 44,021 to 24,640 (Tolu-Kolawaole, 2022). A staggering reduction of about 56% with the UK being the major beneficiary. According to data below, obtained from the General Medical Council of the UK, the data reveals a steady rise in Nigerian-trained doctors migrating to the UK, which as of tech

August 30 2022, stood at 10,096. This data specifically excludes doctors of Nigerian descent who received training outside the country. Examining the data you would notice that despite restrictions and closed operations due to covid-19, 833 doctors were able to migrate to the UK.

The effect of these numbers above can be seen directly in our patient-to-doctor ratio. We currently have a patientto-doctor ratio of approximately 1: 10,000, worsening further from 1:6000 (Adebowale-Tambe, 2022). In stark comparison to the WHO’s recommended 1:600. In rural areas these stats get as worse as 1:30,000 - 45,000.

Examining the second-largest hit sector of the economy, between 2014 – 2021 alone, 474 Nigerian tech talent moved to the UK, via the UK government tech talent visa and this is just the tip of the iceberg as it is projected to balloon by the end of the year (Quadri, 2022). The sudden spike in the number of tech talents exiting the country is attributed to the same factors that are seeing their colleagues across other sectors depart but was accelerated by numerous incidents of police brutality on tech talents, climaxing with the events of the #EndSARS proceedings. The effects of this are telling in already established

tech-driven sectors, as support queries are taking longer time to be resolved, with start-ups bearing the brunt of this exodus. Indigenous companies are now at a talent war, competing with global companies, with a stronger capital base, more attractive brand and superior currency and this is predicted to be just the beginning, as these developed countries are continually creating a pathway for skilled worker entry into their system, further fuelling the #japa wave and no clearcut short term solutions to the problems bedevilling the country in sight, these numbers are expected to keep increasing on an exponential scale. Remote working is no longer a distant possibility thanks to the Overton window created by the pandemic, the few available talents are hugely

taking advantage of this while setting their migration plans in motion. The situation is even more dire when compared to the migration wave of the early 90s. Then, there was still a sense of patriotism and the majority of the people leaving had plans of returning to develop the country, in contrast to now where the great majority of these emigrants have a plan of making these foreign lands their permanent homes.

The situation is not all doom and gloom as the reality on the ground is that despite everyone’s desire to exit the country, migration is by no means a cheap undertaking, especially for an economy that has been labelled the poverty capital of the world and with less than 40% of its population living below the poverty line of

$1.9/day. If you’re looking to migrate you should have saved up anywhere between 10 – 20 Million Naira as an individual or a family of 4 and this amount keeps fluctuating upward to account for currency exchange rate hikes. The reality is there are more people handicapped by this and as a result are still in this country. For the people left, it presents the opportunity for them to upskill themselves and fill these vacancies created.

Employers have to explore other talent management strategies that prioritize talent access over talent ownership. They equally must begin to shift focus from those that are leaving (or have left) paying attention to those that are left. Employers must be willing to explore unconventional and unorthodox means of talent management if they are to win the talent war.