Are Nigerians Ready for Remote Work?
First, I’m a fan of Victor Asemota’s writing. He recently wrote an article “The Era of Remote Work” which supports the narrative of remote work and the possibility of propagating it in Nigeria. While it was insightful and an exciting read, it got me thinking about whether remote work is an actual possibility in Nigeria or is something that we can only hope for.
To begin with, I am very bothered about the practicability of remote work mainly because of how Nigerian businesses are structured fundamentally. The average boss will rather have his employees show up to work every day to give himself a false sense of purpose and to make him believe that work is getting done than give his staff the leeway to work on their terms or even remotely. To think deeply about why this happens, you would also find out that; productive employees are becoming something of a myth in Nigeria, and it is difficult for any company to comfortably give their employees license to work remotely because they fear the work will not get done.
Secondly, I know the entire idea of running an efficient business is having efficient employees operating to fulfil and accomplish the aim and vision of that company. Take out productive employees, and all you have are incompetent “Yes Men” running around, taking years to do what only needs to take a month. Unfortunately, the reason most companies are afraid of remote work is; the lackadaisical behaviour that some Nigerians put on when they get a job. It comes from a false sense of job security and is a fundamental issue with the labour market in Nigeria today, but we’re not here to pick a fight with the unemployed folks.
Victor Asemota said that the next century workers are already in abundance in Nigeria. I agree with this completely. I have met people that are at the top of their game and are striving as remote workers here in Nigeria. However, there are some questions to be asked; are Nigerian businesses ready for the next century workers? Could the problem be an ineffective working structure, or could it be an eroded culture? Could it be something that’s taught at schools? Or something that is not taught at all? We know that the education sector in Nigeria is a mess and as such it’s safe to assume that Nigerian Institutions produce graduates that lack the fundamental knowledge of how to work efficiently and effectively. They are, therefore, ill-equipped to operate in a traditional work environment and so may be unable to function remotely. The average Nigerian graduate has to take online classes and development courses just to be able to compete with their western counterparts when searching for jobs.
Are Nigerian employees ready for remote work? Are they responsible enough, can they be trusted to carry out their duties if they do not regularly have someone supervising them in person? Do they know how to communicate effectively with each other in a remote environment? Many people lack the communication skills it takes to have a face-to-face conversation. Expecting this same person to communicate effectively with a team outside of his physical space is indeed a disaster waiting to happen.
If Nigerians decide to practice remote work, we will be leapfrogging from not even having a proper work structure to working remotely and honestly, that can’t work. But leapfrogging is something we are used to; we skipped the personal computing era and jumped into mobile phones in the early 2000s. We expect that the results would be similar. Although our leap into technological advancement was okay and eventually worked out fine for us, we might not be so lucky with remote work.
We also need to take into account the fact that the absence of well structured, broad-based and synergized economic blueprint with clearly stated goals, plans, policies and strategies to drive the economy is mainly responsible for the current economic challenges and policy ambiguity the nation is undergoing. Remote work cannot be possible in a country without stable electricity, poor internet speeds, and affordable workspaces.
The last thing I think we need to figure out though is how much satisfaction we could derive from remote work. Will the employees be satisfied? Will the employers be happy? If satisfaction is guaranteed then are we able to turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of the work structure and environment?
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