I am currently doing an internship as an engineer for a global company and they recently decided to outsource the production line for one of their new products to Mexico. This is obviously done in an effort to save production costs and increase profitability. Anyway, the minimum wage in Mexico comes up to $1595 per annum whereas in Nigeria it is $1380 per annum so cost cannot be an excuse for not outsourcing to Nigeria. Manufacturing jobs are outsourced to places like Brazil, Mexico, India and China all the time. Why not Nigeria? It cannot be illiteracy because assemblying machines usually require little training and the workers are given a manual on how to assemble the machines anyway. I have asked my uncle this in the past and his response was "the problem is we Nigerians are too agressive". I just want to know your views and if you have any ideas on how we can bring some of these jobs to the country because it will really boost our economy in soo many ways.

Hi bebure,

These are my opinion why manufacturing jobs did not outsourced to Nigeria. Like what your uncle mention, the main problem is Nigerians too aggressive. This is from my observation on one Nigeria guy study here at Malaysia. I am not really sure is it all Nigerians are like that but I believe he made me felt Nigerians are extremely aggressive and controlling. I work in a manufacturing line before. In manufacturing line, customer or the headquarter company orders and command must be treated and received without any questioning. This is the main problem with Nigerians, which I am not saying all but the one I encounter so far always like to argue. Taking command or order seems like impossible for a Nigerian. Thus, this aggressiveness make manufacturing jobs to be outsource to Nigeria seems impossible.

I hope I am not hurting anyone here but this is the fact I so far encounter. Complaints and comments keep coming but work not done. How to outsource manufacturing jobs like this?

reasons are

1. they lack proffessionalism in thier field of work (really and truly nigerians can be really aggressive even when it is not neccesary,also they kiss asses in thier place of work)

2. inadequate raw/ local materials ,in fact unavailabilty should be the right word

take for instance the locally produced pampers, and the imported one ,the difference is soo clear
the made in nigeria pampers gives rashes and inflamation on babies skin and doesnt hold that long.
they tend to use lesser gel , and instead of using cloth-paper cover like all the other imported ones , they use polythene.
in this heat , now tell me,is that torture or what , ESPECIALLY on baby's skin

Jobs are not outsourced to Nigeria for one major reason:

Lack of adequate power supply - it will very expensive to run 24/7 generator for a manufacturing plant. And, also Logisitics of accessing North America market from Nigeria might be alittle bit challenging.

oil wealth in nigeria artificially inflates the real wages nigerians should earn, nigerians value their labor more than market participants do.
Also
Mexico - Cheap labor, also so much closer to the USA so the cost of shipping the goods to US is not as expensive. nigeria is obviously much farther away.
China and India the labor is much much much cheaper than nigiera, plus workers are all educated very well.
Nigeria is to far awy too expensive and the workers aren't smart enough

Corruption and unprofessionalism. Nigeria is also deemed unsafe and therefore a 'no-go area'.

I have a friend who works for a global company in Australia, he tells me Nigeria is one of the countries they cannot travel to unless they resign from their jobs.

i quite disagree with you SEYI-BROWN,

with the current situation in southafrica (killing of immigrants),no where is safe anymore

there are so many countries where industrialisation is booming and yet its regarded as "unsafe"

well i forgot to add POWER SUPPLY .its another reason why manufacturing companies cant
be succesful here, it hinders a lot of thing .

create a good climate for industrialisation , and watch manufacturing companies start coming into the country.

@Uzoo

The problems you mentioned Nigeria has are as a result of corruption.

NEPA(or whatever it is now called), NITEL and all the likes that were goverment run are a mess because of corruption. Our people are used to doing things through the back door.

Corruption is the root of Nigeria's problems and that is what the world sees us as: CORRUPT!

I know this thread is old but couldn't resist.

The number one undisputed answer is POWER
The money spent on diesel generators alone will send them packing. They'd rather go to countries that have cheap labor and uninterrupted/cheap source of power.
Why should they outsource to nigeiria when local manufacturers in nigeria are closing shop. . . Didn't dunlop/michelin shut down recently?

A-town:

I know this thread is old but couldn't resist.

The number one undisputed answer is POWER
The money spent on diesel generators alone will send them packing. They'd rather go to countries that have cheap labor and uninterrupted/cheap source of power.
Why should they outsource to nigeiria when local manufacturers in nigeria are closing shop. . . Didn't dunlop/michelin shut down recently?

Well said A town! u took these words out of my mouth! the answer is POWER and the necessary infrastructure to support! I had a cousin who actually made big plans to bring in BigMac (McDonald) to Nigeria and he had a good location in Abuja nd the deal was almost 70% sealed only for them to pull out at the very tail end. REASON: Infrastructural inadequacies! High operating cost!

Let's face it, entrepreneurs in Nigeria obviously have to contend with the following:
Very volatile political environment (see wetin happen for Jos)
Inadequate power supply
Poor transportation network ( how do they get their finished goods to the seaports?)
Brazen corruption (corruption the 'monster', patrols the streets of Nigeria 24/7 unchallenged masquerading as customs, police, immigration, yellow fever,even civil servants)
& many more I can't readily remember!

So these factors I believe will really not favor companies in core manufacturing but rather those in the service industry.

the one and only, power, power, power.