Banks suffer paucity of IT staff as brain drain worsens

The untold hardship that is now prevalent in Nigeria cut across all strata of the economy, human as well as organisations, academia,  banking sector, among others, culminating in brain drain from Nigeria to other countries, writes, Editor Gentechnews, Tony Nwakaegho

This trend has culminated into the wanton escapade of the youths, elderly and families in what is tagged as widespread brain drain from Africa’s most populous country, now popularly known as “japa”, which means in the Yoruba language, “To run swiftly out of a bad situation”

According to the Oxford advanced learners dictionary, brain drain refers to the emigration of highly trained or qualified people from a particular country.

Furthermore, according to Wikipedia brain drain otherwise known as Human capital flight refers to the emigration or immigration of individuals who have received advanced training at home.

Those who are Information Technology (IT) experts have become a hard sell in foreign countries now.

The banks that have engaged these IT experts during the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria are catching the fever of the brain drain syndrome.

The IT staff in the banks are moving in large numbers outside the country and these are the younger ones that we are supposed to hand over to after a period, so succession planning is hindered, productivity is lowered because these staff are the next generation of people.

The president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Ken Opara, at an event recently, lamented that indeed, the impact of mass resignations of key Information Technology (IT) talents in Nigeria is beginning to tell on many commercial banks, as unresolved technical problems have started affecting service delivery.

Opara, said the brain drain development was not restricted to only the banking sector, but was also an problem affecting talents across all sectors.

“They are moving in large numbers outside the country. We are experiencing a pull of people out of the industry to outside the country and these are the younger ones that we are supposed to hand over to after a period. So succession planning is hindered, productivity is lowered because these guys are the next generation of people. That is also slowing down activity,” Opara added.

A lot of bank customers have been expressing their frustration, and wondering what is wrong with Nigerian banks due to ATM failure to dispense money during some transactions at new generation banks.

Some analysts mooted that something looks fishy as technical problems and unwarranted charges everywhere, adding that it shows a lot of incompetence, loopholes, truth and trust in the entire banking system.

According to them, some banks/fintech apps don’t do transactions with other banks/fintech apps and this is as a result of  technical issues that could have been handled by the bank’s IT team that are migrating to Canada, UK and other developed countries for greener pastures.

Nigeria’s tech ecosystem is growing exponentially and banks are going more digital, but it is suffering from talent shortage especially software engineers as such talent is now being sought from outside Africa to build products used in the country.

Nigeria’s bank  IT staff are leaving in droves  because the traditional lenders in Africa’s largest economy face stiff competition for talent from technology startups which has been attracting increased funding from international investors, mentors and offering better working conditions, in and outside the country.

Additionally, some analysts attribute this to the same loss of tech talents as subscriptions to international music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Youtube Music have become difficult for Nigerian users as most local cards no longer work for international transactions.

They explained that this trend has forced Nigerian fintechs like Flutterwave and several other African fintechs to suspend their virtual card services for consumer users indefinitely and even relocate to other neighbouring countries.

In an earlier interview, the former president of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Organisation of Nigeria (ALTON) and the Nigeria National Coordinator for the Alliance for Affordable Internet, Olusola Teniola, attributed this development to the inability of operators to test systems before their deployment as well as inconsistencies.

According to Teniola, in Nigeria “We are too reactive. Maybe the systems are tested only in the laboratory and so when launched in the public, we become guinea pigs and even the bankers themselves are trying to understand the system. That is why they can’t attend to you immediately because there are errors they can’t account for.”

PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) as its recent survey had revealed that about 71 percent of the global workforce will resign in the next 12 months if employers refuse to raise their pay.

According to the findings from PwC’s ‘2022 Global Workforce Hopes and Fears’ survey of workers in 44 countries and territories reveals that pressure on pay is highest in the tech sector, where 44 percent of workers surveyed plan to ask for a raise.

Currently, the National Information Technology and Development Agency (NITDA) has been grooming talented IT teams and sponsoring them to global competitions such as GITEX where they have won laurels and financial rewards.

The agency have established a robotic academy where they exploit their intellectual prowess in artificial intelligence, among others.

The director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi has described the just-concluded 2022 edition of the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) as the best outing for Nigerian tech start-ups, given the visibility, participation, magnitude of benefits and number of startups that attended the event.

According to him, Nigeria was the only country with two start-ups in the final stage of the Supernova Challenge Pitch Competition.

“Nigerian Startups got a lot of investments and deals signed this year. Again, we have seen a lot of interest in Nigeria [at the pavilion], as more people interacted with our start-ups, trying to understand the Nigerian ecosystem and seeking information on how they can come to the country.

“We have seen others come in to ask for details on how they can partner with us to export Nigerian technologies to the global stage,” he added.

While recounting the gains for the Nigerian team at GITEX, Abdullahi mentioned that a $10m investment deal was signed, apart from the plans and interests other investors have shown in Nigerian startups.

More so, he noted that the global prize won by one of the start-ups, Shap-Shap ($8000) was a feat worthy of mention.

Meanwhile, the founder of Shap-Shap and winner of the mobility and logistics innovation category, Khalil Halilu, hoped the money would go a long way in improving his innovations.

He encouraged Nigerian start-ups to keep their innovative ideas alive and always give their best in every Innovation.

It is trite to say that there is a need for improvement in working conditions of high skilled professionals, placing a high level of premium on professionals and also viewing and treating professionals as IT as integral part of nation builders.

The net benefits of human capital flight for the receiving country are sometimes referred to as a “brain gain” whereas the net costs for the sending country are sometimes referred to as a “brain drain“.

Everyone wants to be employed and be paid well. But in Nigeria jobs are very scarce while the ones that do find jobs, don’t get paid the way they would like to be paid and people end up being underemployed.

There is zeal to move out of the country due to the fear of financial security and the economy of the country, the way workers are being laid off, and salaries that are inadequate to cover daily expenses of workers.

People are tired of waiting for a miracle and dreaming that one day Nigeria would rise from being among the poorest countries to a developed country.

They are now considering the opportunities outside the country, notwithstanding the challenges of starting a new life in a new place, but harp on their chances hoping it would be a ticket out of poverty.

Apparently, one of the major effects of brain drain or human capital flight in Nigeria is the reduction in quality of service due to the absence of skilled personnel in critical sectors like education, health care, technology etc.

What do you expect from a country where there are few or no skilled and highly innovative experts? Undoubtedly, there will be a reduction in the level of technological development because only the less skilled workers are left in the country.

When skilled personnels leave Nigeria for better opportunities, they do their best to prove their worth in these developed countries; thus they develop these countries, leaving their country at a loss.

One of the ways of curbing the menace brain drain is creation of job opportunities with adequate remuneration.

The government should also help in creating more jobs for the citizens to checkmate why individuals with high technical skills migrate to other countries to seek for better jobs.

There is no contradiction to say that Nigerian professionals are the pride of so many European firms dating to the days of Philip Emegwali the man that invented the fastest computer.

It therefore pertinent to say that the idea of brain drain is a disadvantage to Nigerians as a people, it is a waste of intellectual property and human capital resources.

Currently, countries across Europe and Asia are thriving on the global ladder using skilled personnel from Nigeria and therefore the Nigerian government need to create a policy that can retain our skilled personnel and also retract those working abroad with a clear vision with good remuneration of coming to boost our Economy based on their long years of experience in the IT and other fields.

Tony Nwakaegho is Editor Gentechnews and can be reached on tonyn874@gmail.com