Nigeria Draws Regional Migrants But Loses High Skilled Labour, Migration Profile Finds
A migration profile of Nigeria released today by IOM finds that the
country remains attractive to migrants from the sub-region although
increasing numbers of skilled Nigerians emigrate in search of
employment abroad.
According to the National Population Commission, the number of
immigrants residing in Nigeria has more than doubled in recent
decades – from 477,135 in 1991 to 971,450 in 2005. The
Profile shows that the majority of immigrants in Nigeria (74 per
cent) are from neighbouring Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), and that this number has increased considerably
over the last decade, from 63 per cent in 2001 to 97 per cent in
2005.
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target="" title="">2009 Nigeria Country Profile
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian
Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Nigerian economy
grew between 5.5 and 6.4 per cent each year from 2004 to 2007, with
the oil sector the primary engine of growth and a magnet for
high-skilled migrant workers. However, recent economic growth has
also been linked to the informal labour sector, which traditionally
attracts low-skilled national as well as international migrant
labour.
Although the overall situation in Nigeria has somewhat improved
in recent years, the country still has some way to go towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The country has the
world's third highest number of people infected by HIV/AIDS, after
India and South Africa and scores low in the United Nations
Development Programme's human development index ranking (125 out of
151).
In spite of Nigeria's importance as a destination for migrants
in the region, the report, however, shows that more people are
emigrating from, than immigrating to, Nigeria with the negative net
migration rate (per 1,000 people) steadily increasing in recent
years, from -0.2 in 2000 to -0.3 in 2005, and this trend is
expected to continue. According to recent estimates, the net
migration rate could reach -0.4 in 2010.
Estimates made by the Development Research Centre on Migration,
Globalisation and Poverty (DRC), based on the 2000 Census Round,
indicate that 1,041,284 Nigerian nationals live abroad, mostly in
Sudan (24 per cent), followed by the United States (14 per cent)
and the United Kingdom (9 per cent). Many Nigerian emigrants also
settle in neighbouring Cameroon (8 per cent) and in Ghana (5 per
cent).
Although it is difficult to obtain empirical data on migrant
skills, there appears to be a strong link between high skill level
and migration. According to the latest estimates in 2000, 10.7 per
cent of the highly skilled population who were trained in Nigeria
worked abroad, mostly in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries.
According to the report, an average of 64 per cent of the
Nigerian emigrant population have tertiary education; 14 per cent
of all physicians trained in Nigeria work abroad, with 90 per cent
of these working in the United States and the United
Kingdom.
Regarding the flow of remittances to Nigeria, the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN) notes a dramatic increase from USD 2.3 billion in
2004 to 17.9 billion in 2007, representing 6.7 per cent of GDP.
The United States accounts for the largest portion of official
remittances, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Spain
and France. On the African continent, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea,
Chad, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and South Africa are important
source countries of remittance flows to Nigeria, while China is the
biggest remittance-sending country in Asia.
The report also notes a marked increase in the number of
Nigerians emigrating for educational purposes. From 2000 to 2006,
the number of Nigerian students abroad more than doubled from
10,000 to 22,000, the majority of these (some 6,000) studying at
universities in the United States.
Consequently, the overall number of tertiary educated persons
has been declining, from 90,579 in 2002/2003 to 39,509 in
2005/2006.
One result of this is the lack of human capital to meet the
demand for highly skilled workers in the labour market. The
Ministry of Health reported that nearly 8 per cent of its 39,210
doctors and 2,773 dentists are foreign nationals.
Despite declining official unemployment rates (from 12 per cent
in 2005 to 9.9 per cent in 2008), the overall labour supply
continues to outstrip demand and this is likely to continue in the
near future as Nigeria is one of the ten most populous countries in
the world and has one of the fastest population growth rates (2.38%
in 2008).
Based on this growth rate, the Nigerian population will double
its currently estimated size of 146 million people, and unless the
market is able to absorb the resulting surplus labour, unemployment
is likely to increase and lead to still greater emigration.
A review of the data available for the Migration Profile of
Nigeria reveals several challenges including: the need for a
national migration data management strategy tracking both internal
and external migration; inadequate funding for training and
staffing of personnel to record and monitor migration trends and
provide migration controls at exit and entry points; the absence of
a centralized system and official body mandated to coordinate
migration issues amongst government ministries.
Having said this, Nigeria is one of the few countries in West
Africa to have developed a draft national policy on migration which
is pending ratification by the National Assembly. The draft
migration policy, amongst other objectives, seeks to establish a
central migration authority within the government, and addresses
the absence of Migration as a theme in Nigeria's main development
plans, such as the National Economic Employment Development
Strategy (NEEDS) and the state and local government counterparts
(SEEDS and LEEDS).
In addition to supporting full implementation of the pending
legislation, the report recommends: clearly establishing the role
of the National Commission for Refugees, which will be responsible
for coordinating migration management activities; focusing on
internal as well as external migration issues given that this is a
precursor for international migration, occurs on a relatively
greater scale and is vital for understanding the level of
development of the country; and government emphasis on the
strategic importance of migration in development by giving its full
support to formalizing and implementing the national policy on
migration.
The 2009 Nigeria Country Profile can be downloaded at:
For more information please contact:
Jobst Koehler
IOM Geneva
Tel: +41 22 717 92 60
E-mail:
"mailto:jkoehler@iom.int">jkoehler@iom.int
or
Frank Laczko
Tel: +41 22 717 94 16
E-mail:
"mailto:flaczko@iom.int">flaczko@iom.int