Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, is ranked the least lucrative in terms of pay packages for both senior and junior engineers among countries surveyed, according to a survey by Timon Capital, early-stage investor in sub-Saharan Africa and think tank Briter Bridges.
The survey focuses on nearly 50 start-ups in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. These countries were chosen based on the fact that they are often regarded as Africa’s most advanced markets for tech start-ups and ecosystems.
BusinessDay’s analysis of the data from the survey shows that on average, engineers in South Africa earn more than the rest, while Nigeria, despite being home to the continent’s most valuable start-up ecosystem, earns the least.
“What they have analysed is no different from what is happening in the power industry. I want to tell you that engineers are one of the least paid. We are the mainstay of the society. You can imagine an engineer having been in the system for more than four years and is still earning below N120,000 despite how risky the system is,” Alfred Ategle, an electrical engineer, says.
Ategle says, “I don’t think there is a proper regulation in the engineering bodies that we have in Nigeria because if they are doing their work, they should have sat down and draft a salary scale for engineers. And also there is no proper structure laced down for companies and organisation to follow. And that is the reason why anyone can just draft out any salary for us.”
According to the survey, on an average, a senior engineer in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria earns $76,666, $32,222, $27,083, and $18,636, respectively.
Also, a junior engineer in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa earns $12,727, $16,666, $18,888 and $55,714, respectively.
Ayokunmi Kunle-Salami, an information and technology engineer at Cowry Asset Management Limited, says, “I still feel that we are getting very underpaid. In Nigeria, they are pricing you based on your skills and what you can offer, but you cannot compare it to Canada or South Africa where they price you high because they know the value of engineering in their system.”
According to a research paper by Leah Siczkar titled “The Importance of Engineering to the Society, engineers aim to benefit the people of the present by employing effective structures that are intended to improve transportation and living habits of earth’s inhabitants. By extension, it is planning for the continual growth of the human population and ensuring there are sufficient resources for the people of the future. The role of the engineer is to protect the environment and the people within it.
The smaller pay packages on offer for Nigerian engineers has also fuelled a growing brain drain over the past year: with local start-ups unable to match higher salary packages elsewhere, local engineers have increasingly resorted to moving abroad given better career prospects.
Ayodeji Ebo, MD, Afrinvest Securities Limited, notes that the rumination system in Nigeria is faulty and as a result people are moving to where they are most suited and appreciated. “Based on the current challenges in the Nigerian structure, the very good opportunities are not enormous. And Nigerians don’t understand the value engineering brings and they are not willing to pay enough for their services,” he says.
Not only in the engineering profession but also in the medical field as the country is losing her experienced and specialist doctors to other countries where they are better paid because staying back in Nigeria keeps them on the poverty belt.
The World Health Organisation recommends a doctor to about 600 people. Nigeria currently has about 35,000 doctors serving a country of almost 200 million people, meaning we should have 237,000 doctors.
Currently, the Nigerian Labour Congress has been negotiating for the consequential effect of the new minimum wage by increasing to N30,000 from N18,000.
To solve the problem of low pay of engineers in Nigeria and improve its ranking, Ategle suggests that the engineering bodies and the government should sit down, draft out and implement a policy that will mandate companies to review the salary structure of engineers in Nigeria.
“The government should realise their role and begin to see how they can integrate them especially for government projects. Once people begin to see their value, they will begin to change their orientation about them,” Ebo says.
