Dear Forum members,

I am Sid from India and working as Sr Engineer in an IT company. Of late a Nigerian Telecom company has given me an offer to join them as a Consultant Engineer. The company has offered me US $ 24,000 Per Annum cash component. Incentives: Food, Accomodation, Mobility, Transport, Insurance and Medical is all company paid.

In India, I earn US $ 14,000 Per annum and perks are separate. Is the offer decent enough for one man to live and save in Nigeria ?


Please reply

Regards

Sid

The average person living in Lagos earns half of that and still has to pay for food, accomodation and all that, and still manages to send money to folks back home.

Since you dont have to pay for food, accomodation, transport etc, I would say you can live in Lagos and save at least half of that pay. But then, it depends on how frugal you are as a person.

Hope you have a good time here.

Hi. Yeah u can. But it wholly depends  on u. There are so many enticing thing u will want to do. But if u jst know how to manage ur resource I tell u, u will really enjoy urself. Want to get to me send a msg to my gmail. Thanks alot for asking me. Hope to hear from u later. For me its bye.

Sypthoms of a sick nation. When other countries are encouraging their own citizens first before others, ours tend to be otherwise. @Sid, I've got nothing against you. Good luck in your endeavours. I just hate Nigerian leaders for lack of foresight and futuristic visions.

dem_people:

Sypthoms of a sick nation. When other countries are encouraging their own citizens first before others, ours tend to be otherwise. @Sid, I've got nothing against you. Good luck in your endeavours. I just hate Nigerian leaders for lack of foresight and futuristic visions.

Spot on.

lol!!! Naija Girl,

dem_people:

Sypthoms of a sick nation. When other countries are encouraging their own citizens first before others, ours tend to be otherwise. @Sid, I've got nothing against you. Good luck in your endeavours. I just hate Nigerian leaders for lack of foresight and futuristic visions.

Bros , I feel your pain Unfortunately could it be that our system is not producing enough qualified personnel or Nigerian employers are suffering from inferior complex. $24k is really low considering the guy was earning a pittance $14k . I believe the position is definitely a junior position which they would have could found a local talent. Imagine what impact that amount and benefits would have in the live of a Nigeria but anyway such is life

dem_people:

Sypthoms of a sick nation. When other countries are encouraging their own citizens first before others, ours tend to be otherwise. @Sid, I've got nothing against you. Good luck in your endeavours. I just hate Nigerian leaders for lack of foresight and futuristic visions.

U jst spoke my mind. It gets me so mad that a Tel coy in Nigeria would prefer to pay an Indian USD24k per annum to come work with them in Nigeria. Does it mean they could not find among Nigerians people with the same knowledge and experience, or is it jst the same slavery mentality that is killing Nigerian government and employers? Not even an Asian that non of their country here would ever offer you a job even when you are a graduate of any of their uni.

blacksta:

Bros, I feel your pain  Unfortunately could it be that our system is not producing enough qualified personnel or Nigerian employers are suffering from inferior complex. $24k is really low considering the guy was earning a pittance $14k . I believe the position is definitely a junior position which they would have could found a local talent.  Imagine what impact that amount and benefits would have in the live of a Nigeria but anyway such is life

princekevo:

U jst spoke my mind. It gets me so mad that a Tel coy in Nigeria would prefer to pay an Indian USD24k per annum to come work with them in Nigeria. Does it mean they could not find among Nigerians people with the same knowledge and experience, or is it jst the same slavery mentality that is killing Nigerian government and employers? Not even an Asian that non of their country here would ever offer you a job even when you are a graduate of any of their uni.

Osama10:

Spot on.

Thanks guys. At least, you guys have common sense.

There's no way a country of 150 million people - of which about 70% are youths and also, which has a lot of indigenous IT based companies and Engineering University faculties/ graduates, couldn't find at least a single Nigerian to occupy this position. If I'm gonna be labelled xenophobic/ racist then by all means, let it be. I WANT NIGERIAN JOBS TO GO TO NIGERIANS FIRST. If we can't find a Nigerian to do the job (unlikely though) then, we should search for an AFRICAN. If we can't find an African suitable to do the job then, we would recruit from any of those countries where Nigerians (or black people) could acquire professional jobs. Such countries are: US, Canada and UK. How I wish I'm in government.

Thats a steal, Grab it with both hands and feet

[b]@dem_people

Good point but also a little naive sir. No company will just "employ" anybody because they are a national or Africans.
Nigeria might be 150,000,000 but we are just a brain-dead nation. Its difficult to find any one in this country who could globally compete with experts from countries like India, Malaysia, the UK and US. You can come up with some yadayada excuses but the truth remains, our problem as a nation is because we just dont value what it takes to be ahead globally. If you look at our yearly  national budget where does it go? Construction goes to Julius Berger, Hitech, Bulletin, CCACC etc, all foreign companies.
The food isnt produced here. And cars arent manufactured down here. So what gets manufactured in Nigera? Nothing. And we are all happy with been the consumer nation.
Our problem sir, is individual. Not government. How many commentator here has what it takes to get Sid's job and make him feel like he needs to go back to school or learn from them? No matter how good you are after going through a Nigerian institution, you always feel inferior whenever you meet other foreign professionals. It has happened to me a lot when I interacted with other engineers from India or any of these countries?

About just 2% of our enormous bulk has what it take, or less. With this our "Get Rich without plenty work" mentality. We just have no value for what really matters. And an average Nigerian spend too much energy on getting comfortable rather on getting ahead,
Problems like this isnt going anywhere. Not when 80% of our budget goes out under our nose and we are all happy about it, and no Nigerian is bothered about getting a big lion share of it.

You cant push out the foreigners and their policy when they remain the only people who can build you bridges, sustainable and green homes; when we depend on their imported food. We will always be at their mercy until we have like 1,000,000 or more Dangotes and Adenuga's within the country.[/b]

finally someone using his head and not his fingers to comment

The truth is that te world is now a global village,Don't blame the company,as earlier contributor have said maybe this guy have something an average we can not find in the local market.

Let us move back to the main content of this tread, i.e How expensive is Lagos.
Mr sid,with 24k per annum,you can be rest assured that you are going to the really comfortable.
There are people who earn far less than that and there are comfortable.

Welcome to Lagos

@ asog

I compeletely agree with you.

God bless u

bigfoot79:


@dem poopoo you get scorpion inside your brain box, the time way you wan migrate illegally from 9ja you think say na gold an silver den carry pave d place you de dey do corpse cleaner now abi? FOOL SPRAINED SKULL.

Ask your mother who your father is, silly idiot. Ask her the question this morning and she will tell you your true lineage, that you belong to nonentities!!!!! You could've been diplomatic with your response but you chose the abusive lane. Listen and get this into your thick skull. The point I was simply trying to make is that, is it not high time that we start believing in our selves rather than always preferring anything foreign? Most countries - including India itself (the poster's native country) - have protectionist laws. I admire the indians because no matter how one sees it, they have a firm believe in themselves. For your information, I'm in UK legally and work in a multi-national company here having being transferred from Nigeria. If Nigeria intends to develop drastically, there should be a total re-orientation in the way we see ourselves and our capabilities. But, from the tone of your comments, I can really deduct that you're just too daft to be futuristic and objective in your views.

aasog:

[b]@dem_people

Good point but also a little naive sir. No company will just "employ" anybody because they are a national or Africans.
Nigeria might be 150,000,000 but we are just a brain-dead nation. Its difficult to find any one in this country who could globally compete with experts from countries like India, Malaysia, the UK and US. You can come up with some yadayada excuses but the truth remains, our problem as a nation is because we just dont value what it takes to be ahead globally. If you look at our yearly  national budget where does it go? Construction goes to Julius Berger, Hitech, Bulletin, CCACC etc, all foreign companies.
The food isnt produced here. And cars arent manufactured down here. So what gets manufactured in Nigera? Nothing. And we are all happy with been the consumer nation.
Our problem sir, is individual. Not government. How many commentator here has what it takes to get Sid's job and make him feel like he needs to go back to school or learn from them? No matter how good you are after going through a Nigerian institution, you always feel inferior whenever you meet other foreign professionals. It has happened to me a lot when I interacted with other engineers from India or any of these countries?

About just 2% of our enormous bulk has what it take, or less. With this our "Get Rich without plenty work" mentality. We just have no value for what really matters. And an average Nigerian spend too much energy on getting comfortable rather on getting ahead,
Problems like this isnt going anywhere. Not when 80% of our budget goes out under our nose and we are all happy about it, and no Nigerian is bothered about getting a big lion share of it.

You cant push out the foreigners and their policy when they remain the only people who can build you bridges, sustainable and green homes; when we depend on their imported food. We will always be at their mercy until we have like 1,000,000 or more Dangotes and Adenuga's within the country.[/b]

Sir, I wasn't being naive though I might have come across as that, to you. No doubt, numerous points you raised are valid and I thought as much. Remember in my earlier post, I said I had nothing against Sid but everything against our so-called leaders (past and present) for their lack of foresight and futuristic visions. I never insinuated that a company should employ people just because they're from a particular area be it Nigeria or Africa. What I'm saying though is that, considerations should be made for Nigerians FIRST etc, I work in the UK and this is the method that's being used. You're more likely to get a professional job here if you're white english than any other person be it black or asian. Do I blame them? Well, not exactly. Why? Because there is a white british majority and so, the preference scale rises up for them.

I never insinuated that foreigners should be 'pushed out'. That would be downright discrimination but you should understand that, the job might not have been advertised locally thereby, not allowing suitable local candidates to apply prior to it being advertised internationally. Just because we have insurmountable problems back home (weak institutions etc) doesn't hide the fact that we still have numerous credible graduates back home who could occupy such a position.

The world is political, that company might be own by india. and please dont tell me there is no single nigerian that can do that same job.

We've heard  of cases where nigerian excel when given the same opportunity and training with the white boy.

Yes i agree with u our leader are not focus,

Good point but also a little naive sir. No company will just "employ" anybody because they are a national or Africans.
Nigeria might be 150,000,000 but we are just a brain-dead nation.

In as much as you made some important points, It will be ignorant of you saying that entire population of the country are brain dead. Let the Indian Guy post his educational qualification and experience that qualified him for the job, in 2days i will give you at least 5 Nigerian home and abroad that have more than his qualification and experience.

Our problem sir, is individual. Not government. How many commentator here has what it takes to get Sid's job and make him feel like he needs to go back to school or learn from them? No matter how good you are after going through a Nigerian institution, you always feel inferior whenever you meet other foreign professionals. It has happened to me a lot when I interacted with other engineers from India or any of these countries?

Indeed our problem is individual, becoz many Nigerians have the same inferiority complex as you jst exhibited. You don't even know the qualification of Sid, you don't know his experience, yet you have concluded within u that he is greater than you,  he has better thing to offer more than you or any average Nigerian graduate.  I studied in the same Nigeria also, i might not be in the same IT field, but with my experience under my field i strongly believe i can challenge anyone under field, be you a graduate from Harvard uni.
I have nothing personal against Sed but the same him will come to Nigeria, only to sit at the office, while the same dumb Nigerian graduate, we believe they knows nothing will be at the field doing all the technical jobs.

You cant push out the foreigners and their policy when they remain the only people who can build you bridges, sustainable and green homes; when we depend on their imported food. We will always be at their mercy until we have like 1,000,000 or more Dangotes and Adenuga's within the country.

Ok let me jst tell you what selfish Asian government does which i love so much. If you are an investor and you believe my people are not qualified to work for you, you make them qualified to work for you.
Good examples of it is wht has been happening where i live 2008. Is a gambling city with many foreign investors. Initially the foreigners took over all the higher position jobs and the average position which the locals could get was jst a table dealer becoz of their low education. But the government intervened by cutting of the foreign quotas from assistance manager and above. The Casino(investors) were left with no option but train the locals to the post of assistance manager and managers. Infact they even started sending them on 6months, 1year managerial courses on casino and gaming to make qualified. At the completion of the course you are immediately elevated to the post of Manager of assistant field manager. Today the locals has taking over the top positions of this casinos and running it effective and efficiently.

Sometime i wish our government can be as selfish as this Asian government, who places their citizens first in everything. But due to our slavery mentality we believe a coloured man can do it better than a black man.

The average person living in Lagos earns half of that and still has to pay for food, accomodation and all that,  and still manages to send money to folks back home.

@Maxxy
When did the average nigerian start earning half of 24000 dollars?
who do you want to impress?
the average Lagosian earns far below half of that sum.Have you converted that sum to naira first?
that equates to over 260,000 naira per month(half is 130,000).
point of correction.

@Princekevo,

Nice one

Everyone wants to get over patriotic with these things, which is fine. However, anyone who knows the IT/Telecom industry knows that Indians run the show. Now, what would be of better importance is to know the level of experience of this guy. I am not doubting you wouldn't find one out of your 150 million odd nigerians to do the job; the bottom line is what do they want.

The problem is that we are so behind our benchmark is really low, so everyone feels the slightest bit of knowledge they have, makes them the best. I meet nigerians here everyday (fresh graduates) and I ask them how much would they be offered as salary to go back to nigeria, and they say #500,000!! Fresh graduate that knows nothing and needs to be trained - well, they schooled abroad, that should count for something!

Same syndrome that is happening in Zain. People are earning 7 million and don't know nothing. Now they are getting flushed out, and guess what - indians are coming for half price!

@Buffox and aasog,

Agree with ur point of view.There's no disputing the fact of emploer's in nigeria hardly consider local graduates for jobs nowadays. And mr sid u'll surely be above average especially with all the perks inclusive in your contract.

Please forumites, this guy only asked a very simple question and if you do not have answers for him why not keep quiet.

DO any of you know who this employer is, how they advertised for the position, and conducted the interviews. If this guy (Sid) saw the advert, applied for it, was called for an interview and was found suitable for the job and given the offer, please o, what is the need for all this naija sentiments I percieve here.

The world is a global village now and everyone is free to apply to any job in any part of the world. Naija jobs for Nigerians, I very much support, however so far there is no practise of selective recruitment, then anyone from any part of the world is free to apply.

Maybe we should start asking questions about the quality of education we receive in Nigerian universities - the one that is so good that almost every Nigerian is now taking further studies outside of Nigeria.

aasog:

@dem_people

Good point but also a little naive sir. No company will just "employ" anybody because they are a national or Africans.
Nigeria might be 150,000,000 [b]but we are just a brain-dead nation. Its difficult to find any one in this country who could globally compete with experts from countries like India, Malaysia, the UK and US. You can come up with some yadayada excuses but the truth remains, our problem as a nation is because we just dont value what it takes to be ahead globally. If you look at our yearly  national budget where does it go? Construction goes to Julius Berger, Hitech, Bulletin, CCACC etc, all foreign companies.
The food isnt produced here. And cars arent manufactured down here. So what gets manufactured in Nigera? Nothing. And we are all happy with been the consumer nation.
Our problem sir, is individual. Not government. How many commentator here has what it takes to get Sid's job and make him feel like he needs to go back to school or learn from them? No matter how good you are after going through a Nigerian institution, you always feel inferior whenever you meet other foreign professionals. It has happened to me a lot when I interacted with other engineers from India or any of these countries?

About just 2% of our enormous bulk has what it take, or less. With this our "Get Rich without plenty work" mentality. We just have no value for what really matters. And an average Nigerian spend too much energy on getting comfortable rather on getting ahead,
Problems like this isnt going anywhere. Not when 80% of our budget goes out under our nose and we are all happy about it, and no Nigerian is bothered about getting a big lion share of it.

You cant push out the foreigners and their policy when they remain the only people who can build you bridges, sustainable and green homes; when we depend on their imported food. We will always be at their mercy until we have like 1,000,000 or more Dangotes and Adenuga's within the country.[/b]

I beg to differ. Nigerians are not brain dead. They simply DO NOT have an opportunity to prove themselves. Nigerians in other other countries have proved this point. There are hard working and ready to learn professionals who surprisingly have their degrees from Nigerian Universities. A lot of graduates of Engineering here in the States who would jump at the offer sid had, leave the shores of america to work for these IT companies. Tell me and please be sincere, how many of these IT or other companies  would want to hire a Nigerian from America not to talk of a Nigerian from Nigeria. Even though he is well qualified. ONLY FEW. The problem is that these companies have a form of inferiority or maybe they have little or no confidence in the Nigerian Educational systems. These companies hire nigerians who work diligently for less only for the company to go bring in someone of other nationals who probably are less qualified to be the head of department. This is wrong and needs to be checked.

The reverse occurs in other countries. I have seen instances where an american who is less qualified is made to be the head of department. We may call that racist but then, these heads of departments could also be black. Only that they are Americans. Do you blame them? I would not. (Why should I let my people leave my country?) Even though we have other nationals as heads of departments in America, majority of them are citizens of America. The only reason I could think of why another nationals should be the head of department is if the company has its origin from another country.

Also, the fact that Sid is coming in from another country and is to be paid in dollars with all these benefits shows that he was hired as an expatriate. Believe me, he would NOT be coming in for an entry level job. There are Nigerians in America or UK or even in India sef who could have be hired as such. Why didnt they do just that? Only few companies in Nigeria would hire Nigerians as expatriates.

I am not trying to scare you or be unpatriotic, but investigate well from other Indians who have been in lagos before.
The life here is hell, except you want to live in ikoyi or victoria island, and that will erode all the perceived incentives because things cost triple what they cost in the out-of-bound slums.

Besides, you face the constant threat of area boys, kidnappers, suicidal commercial bus drivers and many other prils too numerous to mention.

Anyway sha, best of luck.

Speechless

princekevo:

U jst spoke my mind. It gets me so mad that a Tel coy in Nigeria would prefer to pay an Indian USD24k per annum to come work with them in Nigeria. Does it mean they could not find among Nigerians people with the same knowledge and experience, or is it jst the same slavery mentality that is killing Nigerian government and employers? Not even an Asian that non of their country here would ever offer you a job even when you are a graduate of any of their uni.

you see that question highlighted used to bother me for years when i was living in Nigeria. i was always confused about why foreigners were always handled with TLC until i relocated out of Nigeria. Just two simple words surmissis the reasons. one is proffessionalism and the other is the mental attidute to day to day activities. The educated foreigner is not tainted with the day to day bruhaha of the average Nigerian and is more focussed with the task at hand. Also you need to see the way we work here, proffessionalism is the key word. That is why people get paid by the hour. You get what you put out. just recently i applied for a job from here just for fun (i will never leave the army) and i shudder to reveal what i was offered. By the time they see all the pali and experience put togerther them no get choice but to offer me expertriate package. so no vex for dem too much. dem want make their company survive.

@poster

Not to forget, you are from india with those una lof lof film. If you attempt to practicalise your indian film love love for here, that money no go do you ooo.

^^^^

very funny!

you lot need to get a proper education and thank God at least for the local content policies of the nigerian government cos if the likes of shell,chevron, mtn and now zain had their way,even their dispatch wey dey ride okada do in runs for come from their country of origin.

no 2,it is this indian guy that is being cheated.how much is 24k in the first place??but coming from a population of over a billion with an emphasis on education and particularly IT,i guess he should thank his stars and get on the next plane,cos if he dont the next amtab will withouut noooo apologies and plenty gyrating of the head on the axis of the neck

and for those of you who feel more valuable than an indian,in my own experience they are multiple times more value for money per capita than any nationality i have interracted with including americans and britons wey no dey gree go school.

This country is not encouraging it's citizens at all.All over the world in the professional field, Nigerians have excelled themselves time and time again.In  the medical and engineering fields, we outshine others.What on earth are we doing with expatriates when we have a lot of brains wasting away here. . .jobless people who would be more than glad to work for less than 10% of what these "expats" are being paid.We complain of racism but we are more racist to ourselves.When will we learn to respect ourselves.No wonder our youths are travelling to the most mundane of places in search of that pot of gold they may never find.You see our people wasting away in Malaysia, India, Iran,North Korea, Angola, Trinidad and Tobago. . .even Haiti! Na wa oooo!

@poster

I have no advice for you.Don't take this personal but we have more jobless people here for me to worry about your condition.

End of!

I live in the US and make > $150,000 a year. I want to move back home. What are the job prospects like. can I make similar (or more money USD only) in lagos