•Authors of the report
Despite global challenges such as geopolitical tensions, widespread economic concerns, and emerging virtual mobility trends from the past several years, moving abroad for work remains a dream for many workers around the world, with 23% of global and 64% of Nigerian and 74% of Ghanaian professionals actively seeking jobs in other countries.
Younger people and people from countries with fast-growing populations are the most mobile.
English-speaking geographies with strong economies lead the list of top destinations, with Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK being the four most desirable countries, and London topping the list of cities, with New York also placing in the top five.
Nigeria ranks 67th and Ghana 72nd in terms of their overall attractiveness to global workers, while Abuja ranks 63rd and Lagos 103rd when it comes to desired cities.
People from Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa would like to come to Nigeria to work, while people from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya would like to work in Ghana.
These are among the findings of a new report published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), The Network, The Stepstone Group, and local partner, The African Talent Company (TATC).
Titled Decoding Global Talent 2024, the study is based on survey data from more than 150,000 workforce respondents from 188 countries, including Nigeria and Ghana, and is the fourth installment in a series, the previous editions having been published in 2014, 2018, and 2021.
Natives of regions with a labour surplus , owing to higher birth rates, tend to be more mobile than those who live in areas where the labour force is shrinking. For instance, 64% of workers in the Middle East and Africa are actively willing to relocate, and more than half of respondents in South Asia (58%) and sub-Saharan Africa (52%) are actively willing to do so. At the other end of the spectrum, much smaller percentages are seen in North America (16%) and Europe (10%).
“The world’s most important economies are facing a major challenge: the great people shortage. This looming gap in the global labour market is primarily due to declining birth rates and mismatches between job supply and demand,” said The Stepstone Group CEO 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.”
“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,” says Adwoa Banful, Principal at BCG, Johannesburg.
The top 10 countries Nigerians prefer to work abroad for are Canada, UK, USA, Australia, Germany, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and France. This marks a slight change from the survey done in 2020 that found that people from Nigeria were looking for work in the Netherlands (8th position in 2020), New Zealand (9th position in 2020), and Ireland (10th position in 2020). Ghanaians’ top 10 countries for work opportunities are Canada, USA, UK, Australia, Germany, UAE, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium.
The survey results reveal that global talent moves abroad primarily for professional progress, with those willing to do so citing financial and economic reasons (64% of global, 60% of Nigerian and 69% of Ghanaian respondents), career considerations such as work experience (56% of global, 69% of Nigerian and 73% of Ghanaian respondents), better overall life quality (55% of global, 51% of Nigerian and 57% of Ghanaian respondents), and a concrete job offer (54% of global, 51% of Nigerian and 50% of Ghanaian respondents) as their top reasons for doing so.
