By Abiodun Adetula
Recently, Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO of Moniepoint, reportedly stated that the company has over 500 vacancies but strvggles to find qualified candidates in Nigeria.
The statement has generated serious debate.
Yes, Nigeria has real pr0blems:
weak educational systems, skill gaps, p00r practical exposure, and massive brain drain.
But let us be careful not to create the f@lse impression that Nigerians are not talented or globally competitive.
That would be INACCURATE.
Nigerians today work in some of the most demanding organisations in the world:
Google
Microsoft
Meta
Amazon
They are also leading teams in global consulting firms, investment banks, AI companies, engineering firms, healthcare systems, and research institutions across the world.
These are not environments where incompetence survives for long.
Interestingly, Strive Masiyiwa once spoke about the impressive quality of Nigerian talent they encountered while building Econet in Nigeria.
One of the widely shared stories from the Zimbabwean billionaire entrepreneur, founder of Econet Wireless, and one of Africa’s most respected business leaders, was that when Econet Wireless Nigeria (now Airtel Nigeria) launched, they received an overwhelming number of highly qualified Nigerian applicants and were impressed by the talent pool available. He described Nigerians as intelligent, ambitious, energetic, and highly capable people.
So perhaps the real conversation is not:
“Nigerians are not qualified.”
Maybe it is:
• skill mismatch
• changing industry needs
• brain drain
• unrealistic hiring expectations
• compensation issues
• or perhaps even some level of exaggeration to emphasise the seriousness of the hiring challenge
• and the widening gap between academic learning and practical capability.
Nigeria still has exceptional talent.
The bigger question is whether the system is developing enough of them, retaining enough of them, and positioning them properly for modern industry demands.