The mass exodus of tech talent in Nigeria who are aggressively migrating to Europe and other parts of the world has posed a lot of challenges to few industries in the country, most especially the banking industry.
Enticed with mouth-watering offers, competitive salaries, and incentives, these tech talents do not hesitate to tender their resignation letter to their employers to migrate to another country or industry.
Analysts recently disclose that the mass resignation of tech talents in banks in the country has created gaps in the efficient running of mobile banking services which poses a threat to Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive, digital innovation, and the growth of fintechs.
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According to the managing director/chief business officer at Optimus by Afrinvest Limited, Ayodeji Ebo, while commenting on the exodus of tech talent, he said;
“It is going to affect the case of innovation in the financial services sector because the focus will now be on stabilizing current platforms.
“It would affect the confidence of customers using the platforms because of the increased failed transactions”.
Also during a post-Bankers’ Committee meeting press briefing held in April, chief executive officer at Sterling Bank Plc, Abubakar Suleiman lamented on how the banking industry had been hit by the great resignation.
He complained that many of the experienced tech talents in the industry, especially in the area of software engineering, are either leaving the industry or leaving the country.
Most banks in Nigeria have witnessed a high-level exit of tech talents, which has seen the digital banking services, USSD, and money transfers come under severe strain in recent times.
In June this year, it was reported that customers stormed several banks in the country to make complaints about the challenges they were facing with transaction issues. These complaints were centered majorly on network problems and bank transfer issues.
So many issues have been attributed to what has spurred the exodus of tech talents from Nigeria, such as the rising inflation, unemployment, Poor infrastructure, and constant devaluation of the naira against the dollar as these talents seek foreign employers to earn in dollars as a hedge against inflation and devaluation.
It was earlier reported on Tekedia that some banks have adjusted the education criteria for their recruitment process in a bid to cope with the skills gap.
To curb the exit of top tech talents from Nigerian banks, the chartered institute of bankers of Nigeria had earlier disclosed that to cover up for these vacant positions, they will drive the process of training individuals with the necessary skills in areas where there are deficits.
They further stated their plans to fund training for new tech-focused staffers to fill in vacant positions of those who have left.