The growing trend of foreigners taking up low and medium-skilled jobs that Nigerians are qualified to do is beginning to take a toll on job availability in major cities across Nigeria, as the number of foreigners exceeds the workplace quota, leading to huge capital flight.
The development is at variance with the Nigerian law which approves a workplace quota of one expatriate to four Nigerians, as a growing number of companies now have up to three expatriates to five Nigerians.
Besides, Nigerians are expected to understudy the expatriates for two years, after which the expatriate is only qualified for another two-year extension.
The worse hit zone is the Nigerian oil & gas sector, where expatriates constitute a third of the workforce, a figure that has even increased in the last four years.
The approved workplace quota, according to the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS), is one expatriate to four Nigerians.
Hyginus Onuegbu, a former national industrial relations officer of PENGASSAN said expatriates were only required in areas where there were no Nigerians with the prerequisite technical knowledge. Onuegbu added that even at this, there should be a Nigerian understudying the expatriate to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer.
He said that, “when a foreigner comes to a developing country like Nigeria, he is called an expatriate, irrespective of his professional standing, but when a Nigerian goes to a more developed country, he is called an immigrant. Immigrants are poorly paid. But expatriates enjoy unimaginable pay and dreamland privileges, which is very high even by the standard of their home country,” Onuegbu said.
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According to a senior NIS official, who pleaded anonymity, “Nigerian law approved a workplace quota of one expatriate to four Nigerians, who are expected to understudy the expatriate for two years. And the expatriate is only qualified for another two-year extension, after which the visa can no longer be extended.”
Explaining further, the source said: “These foreigners do everything to get into Nigeria, but refuse to leave, and once the factory gates where they work are locked, getting them out becomes difficult. Besides, other dubious ones get their visiting visa converted from temporary to permanent.”
Although, Chukwuma Obua, the Public Relations Officer (PRO), NIS, corroborated this, he added that the issue of expatriates exceeding their quota was a double-edged sword, ‘’as an expatriate who invests millions would not want to surround himself with people he does not trust, no matter how qualified.
‘’And also, the fear of indigenous workers compromising standards is another reason you see foreigners doing nearly everything, including even serving tea.’’
Besides exceeding the official quota, BusinessDay’s investigations reveal that they are not checked and about 70 percent of them who parade themselves as expatriates are less qualified and are not as proficient as the Nigerians they head in their various workplaces.
They also earn more than their Nigerian counterparts, in addition to the inflated allowances (often more than salaries) that are not taxed.
On a visit to some hotels in Lagos, some foreigners were seen serving as bar tenders, waiters and electricians, in addition to the holding choice positions such as executive chefs, financial officers, food and beverage managers and general managers, among others, which they traditionally occupy as ‘expatriates’.
Most foreign companies that specialise in oil and gas, marketing, ICT, auto, airline and manufacturing, are not obeying the quota rule. Lebanese and Asian companies, especially Indian firms, record higher number of expatriates than Nigerians in their payroll.
Venting their frustration and anger over the continued expatriate quota abuse in the oil and gas sector, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) recently directed all its branches in Nigeria to engage their managements in trade dispute over the issue.
It had also complained severally to the Federal Government (FG) through the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, as well as, Petroleum Resources, drawing attention to the uncontrolled influx of the so-called expatriates that are violating the Nigerian Content Act, and the need to check the abuse.
Francis Johnson, president of PENGASSAN, explained that it had been a long struggle against what he described as “uncontrolled engagement of expatriates through all manner of guises in the oil and gas sector, to take up jobs, including menial ones, which Nigerians are capable of doing.
The issue, according to Olajere Ohune, a hotel management expert, was that there were limited jobs in the country and if the foreigners were taking up menial jobs, they were rendering many locals jobless. “Immigration should curtail this abnormality and visas should be given to those with the skills we lack here and not those with skills we can export,” he insisted.
In defense of visa issuance, our Immigration source noted: “They are all not qualified. Visas are issued from abroad, and visa fee is dependent on in the country of issuance. Whatsoever the country of source charges us, is what we charge its citizens also”.
While most of the foreigners claim to have technical skills, which Nigerians are believed to lack, the immigration source blamed the education system. “The problem is that the polytechnics graduates are supposed to feed the industries, as the graduates are supposed to understudy the expatriates for some time and take over in a process of knowledge transfer. But that hardly happens”, the source lamented.
On the way forward, Onuegbu said that government and stakeholders should make sincere efforts at monitoring and implementing the Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Development Act 2010.
Ohune said the Nigeria Labour Congress should step up its monitoring and punish erring companies, or even recommend closure of such companies, while the NIS should carry out periodic checks on foreigners here and partner the foreign embassies here and security to throw out illegal immigrants.
The Immigration Service source said that the education system should be revamped enough to breed qualified technicians to fill the gap which most of the expatriates are occupying.
OBINNA EMELIKE, VICTOR OBAYAGBONA & JOSHUA BASSEY
