<\/p>\n
By Libby George and Angela Ukomadu<\/p>\n
Lagos \u2013 Nnamdi Nwaogu, a 44-year-old IT worker, has packed his bags. In Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s frenetic commercial capital, galloping inflation and a plunging naira have pummeled his salary.<\/p>\n
Nwaogu, like hundreds of other Nigerians, left amid a brain drain that is punishing even for a nation used to losing its young and educated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have serious doubts if this is the time for that hope to blossom,\u201d he said before flying to the UK last month.<\/p>\n
Nwaogu began a master\u2019s degree in England, while his wife, a doctor, will join him in January with their three children.<\/p>\n
Departing workers are impacting nearly every sector, stretching a weak healthcare system, forcing employers to recruit on a continuous basis and worsening services from banking to tech.<\/p>\n
The phenomenon \u2013 dubbed \u201cjapa,\u201d meaning \u201cto flee\u201d in Yoruba \u2013 regularly trends on social media. Many cite unprecedented nationwide insecurity, inflation at a 17-year-high and a loss of faith in leaders before the February 2023 presidential election.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are witnessing an epidemic of brain drain,\u201d said Dr Dare Godiya Ishaya, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).<\/p>\n
Ishaya said comparatively low pay, workplace assaults and lack of safety \u2013 20 NARD members have been kidnapped this year \u2014 were all reasons members left.<\/p>\n
A NARD poll showed that nearly 800 resident doctors had left this year, while 85% of its leadership were planning to leave. The result is hours-long waits at hospitals, he said, doctor burnout and deteriorating care.<\/p>\n
Real-time nationwide statistics on those leaving are not available. But British government data showed a 300% increase in Nigerians getting UK work visas in the year to June, to 15,772.<\/p>\n
Others are going to Canada, Australia and the United States.<\/p>\n
The exodus lead a banking industry group to release a study last month on ways to retain workers, while tech firms such as Yellow Card Financial, a cryptocurrency exchange, told Reuters they had started offering stock options and pay in dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe competition for talent is only going to get more and more intense,\u201d said Yellow Card chief executive Chris Maurice.<\/p>\n
The pull from countries grappling with their own worker shortages is aiding the exodus.<\/p>\n
One Nigerian accountant who moved to the UK in May said it took her just three months to get offers from two of the Big Four accounting firms; her company, she said, recently doubled its referral fee to 1 000.<\/p>\n
Lagos-based consultancy SBM warned that the loss of skilled labour was bound to have a negative economic impact.<\/p>\n
For Nwaogu, there is no choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be able to give my children a better quality of life,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t get that here.\u201d<\/p>\n