Talent shortages are stopping Dutch firms from realising their enterprise potential. With a thriving tech ecosystem and highly-skilled pool of pros, Nigeria affords an answer to the Netherlands’ IT expertise hole.
On 17 February, the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM), the Netherlands-African Enterprise Council, and Unioncamere Piemonte are internet hosting a Digital Scoping Mission to Nigeria, an occasion that may showcase the African nation as a supply for IT expertise. The occasion will even spotlight enterprise alternatives in Nigeria for firms that need to broaden internationally.
The purpose is for individuals — Italian firms have been invited together with Dutch firms to take part — to get an understanding of Nigeria’s booming tech sector and match with native IT professionals who specialize in essentially the most in-demand expertise.
The occasion includes a collection of informative panels tailor-made to European enterprise leaders, together with a digital tour of one in all Nigeria’s prime tech hubs in Lagos, an summary of the authorized and monetary necessities for doing enterprise in Nigeria, and the chance to listen to pitches and community with native expertise. Contributors can register freed from cost.
Nigeria has greater than 114,000 builders
Nigeria, with greater than 114,000 builders, is rising as a prime nation in Africa for sourcing tech expertise. The nation affords a thriving tech ecosystem with 85 nationwide tech hubs corresponding to incubators and accelerators, rising from simply 55 in 2017. Within the Netherlands, a research by NLDigital recognized an pressing want for tech professionals that can’t presently be met within the native market, with builders being most in demand.
”The significance of and demand for ICT expertise have elevated exponentially within the Netherlands and Italy, particularly within the Netherlands’ data, expertise, and information-based economic system,” mentioned Arnout Debucquoy at IOM, an inter-governmental group that’s a part of the UN system.
“Every year, the Dutch entity UWV releases knowledge in regards to the labour market, and unsurprisingly, every year the ICT sector is ranked one of many highest for labour shortages: in 2019, about 40% of Dutch ICT firms skilled hindrances of their enterprise on account of a scarcity of ICT expertise,” Debucquoy mentioned.
Because the Netherlands’ tech sector continues to flourish, Dutch employers count on demand for IT professionals to develop by 18% over the subsequent 5 years.
“Nigeria’s digital sector is nothing in need of being a real powerhouse on the African continent, constituting over 13% of the nation’s GDP in 2020 in comparison with lower than 1% in 1999. In response to Jobberman, Nigeria’s main recruitment and labour market analytics firm, the nation is properly positioned to turn into a supply of extremely expert ICT professionals on a worldwide scale, due to its giant, educated and entrepreneurial youth inhabitants, low labour prices and English proficiency,” Debucquoy mentioned. “On the identical time, the nation nonetheless faces vital challenges with connectivity, infrastructure, and restricted funding, which gives huge alternatives for European firms to take a position and foster mutual progress.”
Nigeria affords alternatives for European companies
Contributors within the Digital Scoping Mission occasion can acquire insights from European firms which have already invested in key sectors corresponding to agribusiness and renewable vitality and uncover alternatives to take a position and collaborate. “We seen a particular curiosity of firms on the lookout for Nigerian expertise to assist them set up a neighborhood presence within the nation. Hiring and coaching individuals with each the proper expertise and powerful data of the native context, typically proves to be the important thing to profitable worldwide enlargement,” Debucquoy mentioned. “We lately matched a Dutch agritech firm with our Nigerian candidate, Chinedu – after a brief relocation for his coaching, he went again to Nigeria to assist the corporate broaden its enterprise. The Digital Scoping Mission is the best approach for firms to find the huge alternatives within the Nigerian tech business, in addition to the worth of worldwide recruitment.”
The digital scoping mission is a part of the MATCH Challenge, a 3-year pilot programme that helps to shut the expertise hole by offering European firms with highly-skilled candidates from Nigeria and Senegal. Companies within the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Italy share their hiring wants and open positions, and the MATCH staff identifies the strongest candidates by means of a rigorous analysis course of.
The mission affords intensive assist to hiring firms, serving to them navigate native authorized frameworks with teaching periods, providing referrals to related companies within the Netherlands, offering schooling on cultural variations, and on-boarding new staff. By way of the MATCH Challenge and the Digital Scoping Mission, firms are linked on to prime expertise, freed from cost, and African professionals safe positions providing new expertise and expertise that contribute to the event of their communities.
Placement programme emphasizes distant work
Because the programme’s launch in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the scope of IOM’s actions connecting native expertise with European companies, to stress distant work. Tech expertise will likely be recruited just about by means of the scoping mission and the MATCH Challenge, and IOM will help with creating distant working preparations for profitable candidates whereas pandemic laws restrict migration between international locations.
Thankfully, the Netherlands is likely one of the most ready international locations for adapting to distant work, with greater than 60% of staff in knowledge-intensive enterprise companies within the Netherlands already teleworking earlier than the pandemic, and 88% of Dutch organisations working in the direction of creating higher part-time or everlasting teleworking methods. With work requiring a excessive diploma of autonomy and superior IT expertise, the tech business is especially well-positioned to shift to distant work indefinitely.
“Journey restrictions, employment uncertainty, and shifts in working modalities are all challenges that we now have confronted. Thankfully, employers are more and more agile towards digital and distant work, particularly within the ICT sector, which has allowed us to advertise the recruitment of Nigerian and Senegalese nationals with out bodily relocating workers – for some firms, distant work is definitely the popular choice,” Debucquoy mentioned.
“In the end, firms realise that the whatever the pandemic, ICT expertise are desperately wanted in Europe,” Debucquoy added, itemizing cybersecurity, enterprise intelligence, knowledge science, and app improvement expertise as most in demand within the Netherlands as we speak.
“European international locations are compelled to look past their conventional labour markets to search out expert ICT expertise. That’s why the Digital Scoping Mission to Nigeria goals to spotlight the potential of Nigeria’s ICT expertise pool for Dutch and Italian firms confronted with rising home labour shortages, along with the thrilling enterprise alternatives that lie within the Nigerian ICT sector,” Debucquoy mentioned. What recommendation can the organisation supply to buyers and enterprise leaders which can be contemplating the Nigerian marketplace for the primary time? “Don’t get left behind.”