By Juliet Umeh
The stakeholders in the telecommunications sector have called on the Federal Government, FG, to address the brain drain popularly known as ‘Japa syndrome’ by young talented Nigerians.
The stakeholders who cried out yesterday at the ongoing Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo, NTICE 2023 in Lagos said their best and brightest are leaving the country in droves and therefore called on the FG to address this though policies, incentives and ultimately, better social guarantees.
The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Engr. Gbenga Adebay while congratulating the new Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, C&DE and also encouraging local content at the event said: “We are losing a lot of our best and the brightest to ‘Japa syndrome.’ But you can’t blame the people, because as a country, we have not been able to provide enough social guarantees that will keep these young ones here.
“I think the time has come when the industry has to begin to make preparations for their return.
“Today we have what they call work from home, even though they have been in a particular country can work in another country.”
Speaking on the other issues affecting the industry, he called for the independence of the regulator.
He said: “We must not subject our regulator to be involved in the political terrain. The biggest problem that we have today is that we are dealing within the industry, are the same issues that have been subjected.
“For instance the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data,
USSD issue. That was a simple commercial agreement that entered into the political terrain.
“The current pricing regime of the industry is not sustainable. We are basically selling below cost. We must allow market forces to determine prices of services. Electricity tariff is being subsidized by the government, and that is why when the Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos, were meeting to review the price, the meeting was halted.
“We have seen now the consequences of the removal of fuel subsidy, so when the subsidy is being removed from electricity, we are going to face the same hardship that we faced during fuel subsidy removal.
“In our industry, today’s pricing regime is not sustainable in the current economy.
Also in his address, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said there is huge talents in Nigeria that need to be harnessed.
Speaking on the effort to tackle the ‘Japa Syndrome’, Danbatta, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Engr Ubale Maska, disclosed that a lot of policies have been created to address brain drain in the ICT sector.
He said: “We recently had a meeting with Nigerians in the diaspora. The trust of the meeting is to ensure that they get value for their innovations,” Danbatta further explained.
