₦airaland Forum

IyaTola:
Nigeria has talent. That is not in doubt.
But talent alone is not enough in a global market.

Recently, the CEO of Moniepoint mentioned they had over 500 open roles they struggled to fill with Nigerians who meet global standards. That statement may sound harsh, but it reflects a reality many recruiters quietly deal with every day.

The jobs exist. The opportunities exist.
But there’s a gap between available talent and job readiness.

Let’s be honest about why.

Yes, our education system is struggling. Many graduates leave school without practical, job-ready skills. But beyond that, there are patterns we need to confront ourselves.

Take social media, for example.
Entertainment dominates attention. Comedy, gossip, and viral trends outperform thoughtful, educational content almost every time.

And no—it’s not just “the algorithm.”
The algorithm amplifies what we consistently choose.

When serious conversations struggle to gain traction, while light content spreads rapidly, it reflects a deeper preference. Over time, that preference shapes our thinking, our habits, and ultimately, our competence.

We are living in an era where the internet gives us access to world-class knowledge—for free.
Yet many people spend hours consuming content that adds little to their growth.

That is not just a technology problem.
It is a discipline problem.

But that’s only one side of the story.

Recruiters hiring Nigerians often highlight additional challenges:

- Skill mismatch: Degrees that don’t align with industry needs, especially in tech, finance, and operations.

- Poor communication skills: Difficulty expressing ideas clearly, both in writing and speaking.

- Lack of problem-solving ability: Many candidates struggle with practical thinking beyond theory.

- Inconsistent work ethic: Not necessarily laziness, but lack of structure, focus, and follow-through.

- Entitlement mindset: Expecting high pay or senior roles without demonstrable skills or experience.

- Weak digital literacy: Basic tools like spreadsheets, email etiquette, or documentation are often underdeveloped.

- Poor interview preparation: Candidates showing up without researching the company or role.

- Limited accountability: Blaming external factors without actively improving personal capacity.

These are uncomfortable truths, but ignoring them doesn’t make them disappear.

At the same time, it’s important to acknowledge systemic realities—unemployment pressure, economic instability, and limited access to quality training also play a role. Not everyone starts from the same position.

Still, personal responsibility remains a powerful lever.

So what can you actually do?

1. Be intentional about what you consume.
If your screen time doesn’t challenge you, it is limiting you.

2. Engage with content that stretches your thinking.
The most valuable insights are often not the most popular.

3. Learn how money works.
Financial literacy is no longer optional.

4. Build a practical digital skill.
It doesn’t have to be advanced—start with competence, then grow.

5. Strengthen your communication.
Clear thinking and clear expression will set you apart.

6. Develop consistency and discipline.
Talent without structure rarely scales.

7. Work on your character.
Skills may get you hired, but reliability, attitude, and integrity keep you employed.


There are opportunities out there. Real ones.
But opportunity does not automatically translate to access.

Preparation is the bridge.

The seats may be empty.
The real question is: are you becoming the kind of person who can sit in one?

IamANigerianMan:
Liars everywhere... Tell me one thing that is hard with moniepoint job ? Absolutely nothing, I am good at POS repair, three times I had applied and I only received mail not meet with the criteria..... This is the work I have been for 7 years, they would have invited me for interview first..... He should go and sleep

hosemujica:
I agree with him too. If you have not employed at least 5 Nigerians at any level, even as a cook or cleaner then you cannot fully understand this topic.

An average Nigerian employee is just interested in how much he’s getting paid . Most of them cares less about the job description or how to move the business forward.

SpencerForbes:
I completely disagree with him. Having worked within the corporate system, I’ve realized that many Nigerian employers don’t actually like hiring Nigerians. Why? Because they want maximum skills for minimum pay.
They will hire a foreigner and pay him 350k–400k, but hire a Nigerian for the same role and pay 250k. The Nigerian might even be more skillful, but they value the expat more simply because of where he’s from.

Look at the minimum wage—it's 70k. Yet, I can bet that many employers pay their drivers and security far less than that. But imagine if it were a foreign firm or individual safeguarding their property; they wouldn’t blink at paying 200k.

The moment we start to value our own people, maybe "yahoo" and other social vices will reduce. In this country, we love to overwork our own and overvalue others. It’s discouraging for the youth. Other countries prioritize their citizens, but here, we do the exact opposite.

SpencerForbes:
The truth is, the man really failed us. Imagine if he had set up an internship program and hired two foreign experts to train, say, 100 first-class graduates in a year. Even if only five of them fully mastered the system initially, you could have them sign an agreement to transfer that knowledge over three years before moving on.

If those five people trained three others each every six months, within three years he would have built a workforce of elite brains that "japa" or brain drain couldn't touch. But instead of thinking long-term like that, we prefer to shift blame and point fingers at everyone but ourselves.

Gagare1:
I think your first paragraph contradicts all the rest. Clearly, your point about Nigerian employers undervalueing local talent is spot on. But since the expatriates are paid more for the same skill a Nigerian employee possesses, then I don't think it is about paying less for more. It is more like paying more for even less, due to inferiority complex or a lack of trust.

Gagare1:
I think your first paragraph contradicts all the rest. Clearly, your point about Nigerian employers undervalueing local talent is spot on. But since the expatriates are paid more for the same skill a Nigerian employee possesses, then I don't think it is about paying less for more. It is more like paying more for even less, due to inferiority complex or a lack of trust.

SpencerForbes:
The issue now is that with the internet, everyone is "woke." We know exactly what the global market is paying and the true value of the skills we’re bringing to the table.

In the outside world, a particular role might be valued at $2k to $3k, but a Nigerian employer will demand 15 years of experience and offer a measly 250k for that same position. You know the actual worth, yet they’re offering peanuts.

Naturally, many will accept the offer just to survive the current economy, but once that survival phase passes, where is the job satisfaction? That is exactly when the grumbling starts and the "minimum wage, minimum effort" energy kicks in

Hamachi:
Why do Glo and Dangote employe Indians and Lebanese?

Gagare1:
Probably for security reasons, which is a wide area with many possibilities. Certainly not because they are cheaper or more skilled than Nigerians.

IyaTola:
Nigeria has talent. That is not in doubt.
But talent alone is not enough in a global market.

Recently, the CEO of Moniepoint mentioned they had over 500 open roles they struggled to fill with Nigerians who meet global standards. That statement may sound harsh, but it reflects a reality many recruiters quietly deal with every day.

The jobs exist. The opportunities exist.
But there’s a gap between available talent and job readiness.

Let’s be honest about why.

Yes, our education system is struggling. Many graduates leave school without practical, job-ready skills. But beyond that, there are patterns we need to confront ourselves.

Take social media, for example.
Entertainment dominates attention. Comedy, gossip, and viral trends outperform thoughtful, educational content almost every time.

And no—it’s not just “the algorithm.”
The algorithm amplifies what we consistently choose.

When serious conversations struggle to gain traction, while light content spreads rapidly, it reflects a deeper preference. Over time, that preference shapes our thinking, our habits, and ultimately, our competence.

We are living in an era where the internet gives us access to world-class knowledge—for free.
Yet many people spend hours consuming content that adds little to their growth.

That is not just a technology problem.
It is a discipline problem.

But that’s only one side of the story.

Recruiters hiring Nigerians often highlight additional challenges:

- Skill mismatch: Degrees that don’t align with industry needs, especially in tech, finance, and operations.

- Poor communication skills: Difficulty expressing ideas clearly, both in writing and speaking.

- Lack of problem-solving ability: Many candidates struggle with practical thinking beyond theory.

- Inconsistent work ethic: Not necessarily laziness, but lack of structure, focus, and follow-through.

- Entitlement mindset: Expecting high pay or senior roles without demonstrable skills or experience.

- Weak digital literacy: Basic tools like spreadsheets, email etiquette, or documentation are often underdeveloped.

- Poor interview preparation: Candidates showing up without researching the company or role.

- Limited accountability: Blaming external factors without actively improving personal capacity.

These are uncomfortable truths, but ignoring them doesn’t make them disappear.

At the same time, it’s important to acknowledge systemic realities—unemployment pressure, economic instability, and limited access to quality training also play a role. Not everyone starts from the same position.

Still, personal responsibility remains a powerful lever.

So what can you actually do?

1. Be intentional about what you consume.
If your screen time doesn’t challenge you, it is limiting you.

2. Engage with content that stretches your thinking.
The most valuable insights are often not the most popular.

3. Learn how money works.
Financial literacy is no longer optional.

4. Build a practical digital skill.
It doesn’t have to be advanced—start with competence, then grow.

5. Strengthen your communication.
Clear thinking and clear expression will set you apart.

6. Develop consistency and discipline.
Talent without structure rarely scales.

7. Work on your character.
Skills may get you hired, but reliability, attitude, and integrity keep you employed.


There are opportunities out there. Real ones.
But opportunity does not automatically translate to access.

Preparation is the bridge.

The seats may be empty.
The real question is: are you becoming the kind of person who can sit in one?

casualobserver:
I have said it many times.

1: 50% of the products of the Nigerian education system are unemployable.
2: 95% are unemployable in a global standard environment.
3: majority of our population growth I.e the so called youth are a burden, a liability rather than an asset. They are unemployable and are only useful as a market for basic commodities.
4: we’ve not realized this because we’ve not had companies invest in Nigeria for a long time.
5: I said a few months ago on Nairaland, renewed interest in Nigeria will expose the fact that the so called youth we youth as an asset are largely unemployable because they are not up to standard.
6: you only have to scroll through Nigerian social media or Nairaland to understand these are poorly educated largely low IQ people.
7. You can’t have an educational system that has been bastardized and neglected for decades and expect it can produced anything other than substandard products.

gabicon:
Nigeria's can be emotional about many things. We claim to have top talents, were are the stuff they have built? The talents in India, Asia, Europe and America build stuff. The true test of talent is in what they are able to deliver. What have our talents in Nigeria built?

Because of the developmental nature of our economy, talent development can be pretty difficult. For instant I was in an interview for a candidate that had to do with online marketing, the job required managing a seven figure dollar marketing budget monthly, all the talent that were interviewed had not spent up to $10,000 on marketing. It would be risky to give $1m to a talent whose capacity is $10k, it most likely will end in premium tears. I probed further, and found out we don't have up to 10 organisations in Nigeria with that budget for that role and those organisations don't have more than 2 people each in that role. Safe to say an Indian got the job.

We have not had a functioning refinery in the last 30 years, were is Dangote going to get talent to run the refinery? Some say he should train new engineers, how long will it take to train them? What happens to the facility and the loans while these people are being trained?

There is a difference between you being a programmer and you actively working with a team on a project of international scale. The skill is different.

Within the week a discussion erupted among a circle and the India guy was complaining about the Nigerian talent, he said he has to hold his hand on most tasks and he has had same issue with many Nigerians. A last chance was brokered for our talent if he doesn't cut it they are going to India to get a replacement.

In this same discussion, the India guy checked the engagement on the topic on X and it was like 42k and he questioned our productivity.

If we are as good as we think we are let build stuff that can compete on the international market, being a keypad warrior is easy.

Clature:
It is a painful statement only because it is true. How many Nigerians are truly skilled at their craft? Be truthful. Deeply skilled? Very few.

I do dynamic modeling, simulation, control, FEA, CAD for dynamic systems. I have to do all work for my business myself which I do not mind but even the few I find I still have to make numerous adjustments on their work. This does not mean there aren’t skilled people but it’s not just the way we think.

As I have generally said, we are mostly hype and we can see it in the thread. Just hone your skills to perfection, don’t apply till you have and see yourself never be rejected from a job position.

gabicon:
Nigeria's can be emotional about many things. We claim to have top talents, were are the stuff they have built? The talents in India, Asia, Europe and America build stuff. The true test of talent is in what they are able to deliver. What have our talents in Nigeria built?

Because of the developmental nature of our economy, talent development can be pretty difficult. For instant I was in an interview for a candidate that had to do with online marketing, the job required managing a seven figure dollar marketing budget monthly, all the talent that were interviewed had not spent up to $10,000 on marketing. It would be risky to give $1m to a talent whose capacity is $10k, it most likely will end in premium tears. I probed further, and found out we don't have up to 10 organisations in Nigeria with that budget for that role and those organisations don't have more than 2 people each in that role. Safe to say an Indian got the job.

We have not had a functioning refinery in the last 30 years, were is Dangote going to get talent to run the refinery? Some say he should train new engineers, how long will it take to train them? What happens to the facility and the loans while these people are being trained?

There is a difference between you being a programmer and you actively working with a team on a project of international scale. The skill is different.

Within the week a discussion erupted among a circle and the India guy was complaining about the Nigerian talent, he said he has to hold his hand on most tasks and he has had same issue with many Nigerians. A last chance was brokered for our talent if he doesn't cut it they are going to India to get a replacement.

In this same discussion, the India guy checked the engagement on the topic on X and it was like 42k and he questioned our productivity.

If we are as good as we think we are let build stuff that can compete on the international market, being a keypad warrior is easy.

Hamachi:
i noticed a consistent behavioural pattern among Nigerian billionaires who run big businesses.

This behaviour is pronounced more among Mike Adenuga of Glo Brand and Aliko Dangote.

The behaviour is this: these business owners hardly hire Nigerians as business executives to run their businesses.

They prefer to travel as far as Pakistan, India, or Lebanon to hire their nationals to come to Nigeria to run their business.

Dangote's top executives are mainly from India and then Lebanese, while Mike prefers hiring Pakistan nationals to run Glo for him with his daughter Bella.

Dangote started hiring indians business executives when he was a trader and since he transitioned into an industrialist, he has not looked back as he has doubled down in hiring them.

Hiring these guys comes at a steep price.

Most Dangote Group executives are Lebanese or Indian, and their annual salaries are up to 300 million naira per annum when converted to our local currency.

Aside from the high cost that they charge as salaries, you provide a duplex accommodation in Ikoyi or Banana Island with an SUV for them.

You also provide Hilux vehicle with policemen protecting them against kidnappers since they are endangered specie because of their white complexion.

Devakumar V. G. Edwin is one of Dangote's trusted lieutenants, as Aliko does not joke with him.

He has been with him since 1992, when he joined the business as a general manager.

At that time, Dangote was still a mega importer and a trader.

Edwin helped to transition the Dangote group into the industrial behomth that it is today from a trading company.

He is the one supervising the refinary project in Lekki for Dangote as Dangote trusted him so much, having supervised the building of the cement plants for the group all over Africa.

When you convert what Devakumar V. G. Edwin earns into Naira because he is paid in dollars by the Dangote group, the man earns more than 350 million naira salary per year.

Just like the rest of Dangote's top executives, he is an Indian national, and it is the same story across the whole gamut of Dangote's executives. .

The CEO Of Dangote sugar, RAVINDRA SINGH is an Indian national.

The same with the CEO of Dangote Cement.

Now i want to understand:

why, despite the high cost of hiring them, are these Forbes billionaires more comfortable hiring Pakistanis, indians, or Lebanese than Nigerians to manage their businesses in Nigeria?

Are they more ruthlessly efficient than their Nigerian business executives?

Is there any reason why this is so?

SpencerForbes:
The truth is, we all collectively discouraged the system. When the root was starting to rot, that was when it should have been cut off. China didn't build their powerhouse economy in a day.

If we look back at how they did it, they followed a blueprint: they brought in foreigners to train their graduates through intensive internships with competitive pay. If we had adopted that same strategic mindset, we wouldn't be in this mess today, or at the very least, the damage would be minimal.

I respect the Chinese because they actually believe in their own. If a Chinese man opens a profitable business in Nigeria, he will go back home and bring his brothers to join him. It’s not that other foreigners can't do the same; it's just that he has a deeper belief in his people and is willing to train them until they become world-class experts. We need that same level of intentionality here.

SpencerForbes:
If we are to agree with you, are you actually willing to pay the standard global wage? Or will you still demand 10 years of experience for a 250k role while their counterparts abroad are earning $3k for the exact same work?

What happened to the idea of opening a workshop to train even 15% of the workforce? If those people train others, the number of unemployable graduates would drop significantly within a decade.

Many employers seem to think Nigerians are gullible. We would much rather work remotely for $1k than beg any local employer for peanuts.

gabicon:
My dear these guys are more ruthlessly productive and efficient than Nigerians. I was seconded to a company that was purchased by a British company and they decided to remove the Indians in the company and replace them with Nigerians after 6 months that decision was reversed. I say nepotism, sabotage, craftiness, politics and highhandedness our Nigerian brother caved the Indians survived. I asked an Indian how they managed to always end up on top, he said India is very similar to Nigeria and they have to master the act of survival and competition while doing the job but we Nigerians can't do both at the same time.

Hamachi:
It would not work in this part because half the time the person doesn't want you to grow more than him.

casualobserver:
What is standard global wage? There is no such thing. If you feel as an engineering graduate in Nigeria you are entitled to the same £40,000 a Uk graduate earns, why don’t you apply for the UK job? Wages will always be a reflection of local environment plus the particular skill. What should be constant irrespective of where you are is the quality of the certificate that says you are qualified. That’s the problem! Your Nigerian certificate says you are educated in a particular course but when you are put to test, you fall short of basic standards.

In Mexico a qualified doctor fresh from medical school earns $7,000-12,000, just next door in the US he will earn $72-92,000, in Canada he will earn $43-54K. There will no difference in the standard of the American or Mexican doctor. That’s the problem with NIgeiran graduates…the quality!

I am telling you in Nigeria, there are graduates who earn upwards of N2m a month, I know of graduates in Nigeria on $100,000 pa.a and there are those who earn N70k a month minimum wage. Those well paid did not go Nigerian universities.

Nigeria has a large unemployed youth population, we are an English speaking country. Ordinarily we should be a node for call center farms. Many firms explored the idea, you know why it didn’t happen? Our basic English and IQ is actually very poor. We speak but lack comprehension and we can’t solve problems or reason logically, which is where the IQ art comes in.

BioData45:
There is a theory "Quality of life Theory" that says the ultimate goal of any economic activity should be to improve human well-being not just to make generational wealth. This same people you defend don't treat the white employees like that, why must it be your own people?

SpencerForbes:
You hardly hear Nigerians clamoring to work for Moniepoint, despite the fact that we have countless brilliant minds who have exited this broken system and are excelling globally.

If the Moniepoint boss doesn't want to hire Nigerians, that’s his prerogative. We’ve accepted that and moved on. But going on a global stage to devalue and embarrass the average Nigerian is a massive insult.

The damage this does internationally is huge. It gives other nationalities an unfair edge over us by reinforcing negative opinions on a global scale. If he’s not ready to invest in fixing the system and building local talent, he should stay silent rather than undermining our collective reputation.

casualobserver:
The world already knows. Nobody is discriminating against you because you are a Nigerian. Well educated Nigerians excel internationally. There are even fields where we are highly regarded. You are being looked down upon because of the university you attended and because those from those universities that were previously employed did not represent local universities well, embarrassed your university and hence your certificate. You devalued your certificates by refusing to allow successive govts to raise fees. Now you are reaping your rewards of the poor quality education you received.

He is right to say it because we have had a problem with education for over 4 decades that we have pretended doesn’t exist. If we don’t address it we can’t develop as a country.

Hamachi:
i noticed a consistent behavioural pattern among Nigerian billionaires who run big businesses.

This behaviour is pronounced more among Mike Adenuga of Glo Brand and Aliko Dangote.

The behaviour is this: these business owners hardly hire Nigerians as business executives to run their businesses.

They prefer to travel as far as Pakistan, India, or Lebanon to hire their nationals to come to Nigeria to run their business.

Dangote's top executives are mainly from India and then Lebanese, while Mike prefers hiring Pakistan nationals to run Glo for him with his daughter Bella.

Dangote started hiring indians business executives when he was a trader and since he transitioned into an industrialist, he has not looked back as he has doubled down in hiring them.

Hiring these guys comes at a steep price.

Most Dangote Group executives are Lebanese or Indian, and their annual salaries are up to 300 million naira per annum when converted to our local currency.

Aside from the high cost that they charge as salaries, you provide a duplex accommodation in Ikoyi or Banana Island with an SUV for them.

You also provide Hilux vehicle with policemen protecting them against kidnappers since they are endangered specie because of their white complexion.

Devakumar V. G. Edwin is one of Dangote's trusted lieutenants, as Aliko does not joke with him.

He has been with him since 1992, when he joined the business as a general manager.

At that time, Dangote was still a mega importer and a trader.

Edwin helped to transition the Dangote group into the industrial behomth that it is today from a trading company.

He is the one supervising the refinary project in Lekki for Dangote as Dangote trusted him so much, having supervised the building of the cement plants for the group all over Africa.

When you convert what Devakumar V. G. Edwin earns into Naira because he is paid in dollars by the Dangote group, the man earns more than 350 million naira salary per year.

Just like the rest of Dangote's top executives, he is an Indian national, and it is the same story across the whole gamut of Dangote's executives. .

The CEO Of Dangote sugar, RAVINDRA SINGH is an Indian national.

The same with the CEO of Dangote Cement.

Now i want to understand:

why, despite the high cost of hiring them, are these Forbes billionaires more comfortable hiring Pakistanis, indians, or Lebanese than Nigerians to manage their businesses in Nigeria?

Are they more ruthlessly efficient than their Nigerian business executives?

Is there any reason why this is so?

Hamachi:
A lot of what you’re saying comes from a hard truth people don’t like to sit with: talent is not proven by confidence, certificates, or potential. it’s proven by systems, scale, and repetition under pressure.

In Nigeria, we have no shortage of intelligent people. That part is not in doubt. The real gap is exposure to environments where talent is stretched by scale.

Take your marketing example. Managing $10k/month vs $1m/month is not a linear upgrade. It’s a completely different universe:
1. At $10k, you can rely on intuition, small experiments, and manual oversight
2. At $1m, you’re dealing with segmentation at scale, attribution models, fraud prevention, creative testing pipelines, regional variations, compliance, and coordination across teams and tools

Someone who has never had to lose $200k in a week and recover from it with data cannot be expected to naturally operate at that level. Not because they are unintelligent, but because they have never been forced into that environment.

That’s the structural issue.

India, parts of Asia, Europe, and the US didn’t just “have better talent.” They built ecosystems where:
- People get access to large budgets early in their careers
- Mistakes are expensive but part of the learning curve
- Companies operate at scale consistently, not occasionally
- Knowledge compounds because there are thousands of similar roles doing similar things

So when someone from those systems says, “I’ve seen this problem before,” it’s often because they’ve literally seen it 100 times in production environments.

In Nigeria, many “talented” professionals are still operating in sandbox conditions:
a. Low budgets
b. Small teams
c. Fragmented markets
d. Limited global exposure

So what gets called “talent gap” is often really a scale gap.

Even our refinery point makes that clear. You don’t build a complex industrial system and then look for talent inside an economy that hasn’t operated one for decades and expect instant readiness. Skills in those environments are not theoretical, they are forged through years of operating, failing, and iterating inside similar systems.

And that’s why outsourcing or hiring foreign expertise often happens. Not because locals lack intelligence, but because:

1. The foreign talent has already been “burned in” at scale

2. They’ve made expensive mistakes on someone else’s system

3. They’ve operated machinery, budgets, and teams that look like the target system

The uncomfortable true is this: You don’t develop “international-level talent” by debating it or defending it online. You develop it by building systems locally that are expensive, demanding, and unforgiving enough to create it.

Until that happens consistently, comparisons will always feel unfair — because they are comparing trained production experience vs emerging potential ecosystems.

And in global business, potential is respected… but performance at scale is what gets hired.

phineas:
Stop speaking on what you don't know

Moniepoint is a fintech,he needs tech boys

Naija wants to pay tech persons peanuts and use them like horses when they already get remote jobs that pay them steady without them leaving the house

Tech boys and girls are refusing naija tech role with nonsense pay and toxic work environments

It's not just moniepoint it applies across sectors and many banks

Naija should pay better and profer better working conditions.simple

These same tech persons that you say are unavailable are been recruited daily remotely with their naija education.be deceiving yourself,some even get coas to move