As the President Muhammadu Buhari administration makes efforts to diversify the economy away from crude oil following the slump in global oil prices, demand for project managers who will drive the Federal Government’s renewed focus on the non-oil sectors of the economy is likely to increase.

The Director, Consulting and Systems Integration, Ericsson Nigeria, Oluwatosin Agbetusin, who stated this, observed that an increasingly diversified portfolio had created a wave of projects ranging from infrastructure to mining, and an increased demand for project talent.

Agbetusin, the first programme management professional in Nigeria to bag a programme management certification from the renowned Project Management Institute in the United States, said the project management profession had become so popular over the past five years, such that a huge number of professionals from other areas were switching careers to join the fold.

“More projects in the pipeline mean more hiring of project talent,” he said.

According to Agbetusin, whose outlook for project management in Nigeria was featured in the January edition of PM Network, a monthly magazine offering insights from the profession’s most experienced leaders globally, there are currently more project management jobs available than experienced professionals to handle them.

On that basis, he stated, “I see 2017 bringing more push for additional project management skills and certifications. Beyond the Project Management Professional credential, I expect that more organisations in Nigeria will seek out practitioners with specific skills and certifications in risk, scheduling, agile, programme management and portfolio management.”

The National Bureau of Statistics forecasts that the Federal Government’s renewed spending on projects and cuts on wasteful spending will spark an annual average of 5.4 per cent expansion of the economy between 2017 and 2020.

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