Over two-thirds of professionals in Nigeria and three-quarters of professionals in Ghana are open to working overseas, according to a recent survey by Boston Consulting Group and The Network.
Decoding Global Talent 2024, a report that polled over 150,000 workers across 188 nations, discovered that professionals in their younger years and those from rapidly expanding populations were more likely to look for jobs elsewhere.
Strong economies in English-speaking nations including Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK were the most popular travel destinations, with New York and London being among the most sought-after cities.
According to the research, Lagos and Abuja were ranked 103rd and 63rd, respectively, in terms of desirable cities, while Nigeria was ranked 67th and Ghana 72nd in terms of appeal to foreign workers.
“The world’s most important economies are facing a major challenge: the great shortage of people. This looming gap in the global labour market is primarily due to declining birth rates and mismatches between job supply and demand,” said the CEO of Stepstone Group, Sebastian Dettmers.
“Labour migration represents a prime opportunity to bridge this gap. We must adapt our job markets to be more versatile, enabling workers to move to where they are most needed and where they can find the best positions for their skills and aspirations.”
The top 10 countries Nigerians prefer to work abroad for are Canada, the UK, the USA, Australia, Germany, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and France.
This represents a little shift from the study conducted in 2020, which indicated that Nigerians were seeking employment in the Netherlands (ranked eighth in 2020), New Zealand (ranked ninth in 2020), and Ireland (ranked tenth in 2020).
Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia, Germany, the UAE, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium are the top ten nations for employment prospects for Ghanaians.
The Principal at BCG, Adwoa Banful, stated, “West Africa continues to offer attractive job opportunities for local professionals and for others from the rest of the continent and overseas, who are seeking to advance their careers.
“There are some clear reasons why people are choosing to relocate to Nigeria and Ghana, most notably the quality of job opportunities, and the region’s welcoming culture and family-centric environment.”
