Last week, Aliko Dangote was a subject of conversation among Nigerians. This is hardly surprising, considering his status as the richest black man in Africa and his ownership of various industries, including the groundbreaking Dangote Refinery. The refinery’s potential to make a significant impact on Africa, particularly Nigeria – a major oil-producing nation lacking working refineries – adds to the interest surrounding him.

This time, Aliko Dangote is making headlines because his refinery reportedly announced its intention to recruit 11,000 skilled workers from India. Yes, you read that correctly – a workforce of 11,000 expatriates from India is being sought by Dangote Refinery. 

This is difficult to accept, considering Nigeria’s alarming high unemployment rate. Per the National Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate experienced a significant rise, increasing from 23.1 per cent in 2018 to 33.3 per cent in 2020. As of now, there hasn’t been any updated version of this figure from the official statistics authority in Nigeria. However, a multinational consulting firm in the country, KPMG says the Nigerian unemployment rate had increased to 37.7per cent in 2022 and will further rise to 40.6per cent, due to the continuing inflow of job seekers into the job market.

The firm predicted that unemployment would remain a significant challenge in 2023, primarily because of limited private-sector investment, slower economic growth, and insufficient industrialization. “Consequently the inability of the economy to absorb the 4-5 million new entrants into the Nigerian job market every year,” the firm stated. Since there is a low level of industrialization, job opportunities outrightly become scarce in the country, contributing to the difficulties many face in finding gainful employment. 

Making a case for the development, the Sub-Saharan African Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network said Dangote Refinery’s choice to engage 11,000 skilled workers from India while neglecting youths from Nigeria and other African countries was that youths from Nigeria lacked the adequate skills needed to be engaged in the assignment. 

The development has elicited mixed reactions from Nigerians on social Media. Ebere Anosike, a Twitter user stated that “It’s unfathomable that NNPC invested so much of our sovereign wealth in Dangote Refinery, but can’t ensure that the refinery jobs are filled by Nigerians. A country with 33% unemployment & 25% under-employment!”

Chigozie Ahumibe shares a similar sentiment saying “I’m interested in knowing what skills 11,000 Indians have that Nigerians don’t have or can’t pick up with 6-12 months of training. If it’s about ‘cognate experience’, then have supervisors and leaders who will bring experience on board for others to learn from.”

Wole Ogundare had a counterargument. “When the NIIMP (infrastructure master plan) was completed in 2013, it was estimated that Nigeria needed 33k engineers per annum for its implementation. We also realized that Nigeria lacked the engineering competencies required, and we will need to import the bulk of these engineering skills. What we resolved was to ensure that imported skills are transferred to local counterparts. The point? Import the required skills and set up a system to ensure that local engineers learn from the imports as much as possible,” he stated.

According to another user, Abel-Onyemuwa Chinedum, “We don’t have the expertise yet. They work and train the locals for a period of time and then most of them go back. That’s how the Telco industry in Nigeria was set up. I worked as an engineer and was trained by Indians and Philippines who all left after a few years.”

One is tempted to ask what percentage of the refinery's workforce this is.
Regardless, this is one really 'bold' move, if true.

The amount of fx these guys repatriate is huge, yet someone thinks its the best decision to employ so many.

Ok.

— Fræŋk (@iceColdLights) July 28, 2023

In Nigeria, it is commonplace for companies to harness technology and expertise from foreign-related firms to enhance operational efficiency. But this often comes at a huge cost. In 2021, account data by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed that Nigeria and its corporates spent a sum of $55 billion on foreign expatriates for business, professional, and technical services in the last 10 years. Even the government is not exempt from this trend. The increasing influx of expatriates into aviation services and the rising patronage by the political class have been estimated to result in an average monthly capital flight of N1.62 billion ($3.89 million) from Nigeria.

Addressing the report, Anthony Chiejina, the Dangote Group’s Chief Branding and communication officer explained that the circulating information did not reflect the number of skilled Nigerians on the site. According to him, the magnitude of the project (Dangote refinery) required a specialised skilled workforce from all over the world, and while over 30,000 Nigerians were engaged among the skilled workforce, at the peak of construction in the Refinery complex 6,400 Indians and 3,250 Chinese workers were among the skilled workforce. He argues that the Dangote group continues to be the leading light in the employment generation. 

In Nigeria, there has been a longstanding sentiment regarding the misuse and abuse of expatriate quotas by companies especially oil companies in the country. Reports of companies prioritizing expatriates as supervisors and bosses over their indigenous professionals are also not new. This raises concerns not only about denying opportunities to qualified Nigerians but also about companies exceeding their legitimate quota for expatriate employment.