Offshoring Services: An Incomplete Picture...
No thanks to PHCN, Nigeria is not in the picture. The index evaluates 50 countries according to three main categories: financial attractiveness (check), availability of skilled workers (check) and the business environment (no check).
From the
Also see: Onshoring Their Personal Lives and Going Home To Fix Nigeria
18Comment(s):
availability of skilled workers (check) ?
really ?
i seriously doubt that.
TRAINABLE WORKERS...JUST BEING OPTIMISTIC
I see your blog's still going strong. Are you a millionaire yet? A girl's got to ask...;). Well, just dropped in to say hello. One!
Omodudu,
Nice one. But it's rather coming late on the agenda.
It's rather unfortunate though that Nigeria, with all it's human capital has never thought of positioning itself (for obvious reasons), corruption, bad governance, lack of necessary infrastructures: electricity supply, good road, communications, insecurity of life and property etc. To take advantage of / benefit from the on-going offshoring/globalisation frenzy of the past years. This topic is of high interest to me, because (1) It was the topic I of my thesis and (2) Due to the nature of my work I have been involved first-hand with offshoring of job positions to India.
I work in the banking industry, and I was opportuned to have been one of the trainers of new colleagues in India, both classroom and on-the-job training. Also after care and up till present time giving daily support to the off-shored location.
With all due respect to the Indian colleagues, what struck me and saddens me is that despite all the praises India has been receiving regarding offshoring. My observation has been that, there is nothing the Indians are capable of, that the average Nigerians are not, except for the negative things that we are known for.
Having said the above though, what Nigerians and the Nigerian government needs to realise is that, off-shoring has generated Billion of Dollar and enormous amount of employment opportunities for Indian graduates, also technology and knowledge transfer. The same cannot be said of the negative activities the average Nigerian proudly engages him/herself in.
The Nigerian people and government should wake up and start thinking outward. It's never too late. Thanks.
and who is supposed to train them ?
or rather who is supposed to pay for their trainning ?
if it's the companies, that reduces the financial attractiveness of the country. (or the expect speed of returns)
if it's the government, well, it could affect the financial attractiveness (as the government will have to tax something to pay for it), the business environement (as government will have to tax something to pay for it) or the availibility of skilled workers (as the government is not paying for it currently).
optimism sound better when it's reasonnable.
Thanks random African..I am glad you brought this up. In the post before this i talked abotu a project that was shot down. You did not leave an email address 'twould be nicer to discuss this via email. I came a up with a model (for something else really) where the cost of training for a particular scheme would be born by the lender (a Chinese comapany they were fine with it. The borrowers ( I beleive they would have been fine cos they had a huge incentive, they weren't going to get a thing without the certificate) and the Gov. The FG would have carried only a little accreditation palava. But.... read the post. Look how it ended. Where there be challenges there be oppourtunities, one thing is to run into walls, road blocks do not scare me. The only problem I forsee right now is tha tour country is not very friendly to private initiatives. When I say our country I mean us.
Example if we all agreed to a particular standards, such projects wouldn't go anywhere until the FG puts a stamp on it. and you know my people.
Realized I did not answer your question directly...You and I will train them and the investment will pay for itself.
@Baba wish you could come back to share some more light on this topic. Too bad you did not leave an email address.
I think we have the business enviroment? i think all three should be checked
ah, the usual "what's in it for me ?"
i do agree with you that the awful business environement is a major cause but i do think the cost and people and skills advantages are also directly affected by that same environement.
and on top of that, i'm pretty sure any policy made by the nigerian government that would improve the availability of the skilled workers, would, according to the economist, reduce the other 2 categories.
the people and skills issue in Nigeria is complicated in my opinion and solutions would involve more civic and democracy questions than most business people usually want to discuss.
but that comes from my experience in Nigeria.
i'll be more than glad to discuss it in the future.
kuntual AT mac DOT com
Nigeria will be in the complete offshoring services picture if the service being provided is corruption!
lol @ Nigerian politricks. But are we really more corrupt than India?
The recent scandal that exposed thousands of Indian employees selling people's personal details doesn't seem to have affected the overall view that India is THE place to outsource to. There is still far too much stigma and stereotype attached to Naija. Once a few take the leap, I assure you many other big companies will follow.
Nigeria IS more corrupt than India or Brazil or China.
The main difference being: In those other countries, while there is incentives for the investor/corruptor to go the "other way" or incentives for the worker/government/corruptees to go the other way, the legal way to make business still exists.
In Nigeria, the other way is the way.
wat can we say, Nigeria will get beta some day.
Thanks for coming by guys.
no nigeria in the picture, it will take a long time to appear, if it will at all
Interesting to see a discussion on globalization in Africa!
Oh yes Mohan we do talk about things like globalization too...