Nigeria's Federal Government has launched Share Hire From Nigeria, a campaign aimed at connecting Nigerian professionals with the international market for services that can be delivered remotely. The program is built around the idea that a country with Nigeria's demographic scale should capture a larger share of this market. However, the nature of competition in this market is changing, with artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly capable of performing tasks traditionally done by humans.
The International Labour Organization estimates that one in four workers worldwide is employed in an occupation with some exposure to generative AI, but only 3.3 per cent of global employment falls within its highest exposure category. These are the kinds of internationally tradable cognitive services in which ambitious young Nigerians might reasonably hope to compete. However, many of the services easiest to export digitally are also composed of tasks increasingly susceptible to being performed digitally by machines.
The Hire From Nigeria paradox highlights the challenges facing Nigeria's talent export strategy. On one hand, the country's large pool of educated and relatively inexpensive workers makes it an attractive destination for outsourcing. On the other hand, the increasing use of AI technology threatens to disrupt the very tasks that Nigerian professionals are being trained to perform. To remain competitive, Nigeria must adapt its strategy to focus on high-value tasks that require human skills and judgment.
A recent experiment by Anthropic, a leading AI research company, highlights the rapid progress being made in AI technology. The company's AI system, Claude, is now leading about 26 per cent of the work involved in Anthropic's own AI research and development, while more than 90 per cent of its research involved some form of human-AI collaboration. This blurs the boundary between a tool that assists work and an agent that performs substantial portions of work.
The implications of this shift for Nigeria's talent export strategy are significant. Rather than competing solely on the basis of cheap labor, Nigerian companies must focus on delivering high-value services that require human skills and judgment. This requires a different approach to talent development, one that emphasizes the use of advanced AI tools and the development of domain-specific knowledge and expertise.
To achieve this, Nigeria's talent export strategy must be accompanied by measures that promote the development of high-value services and the growth of Nigerian firms that own intellectual property and control global distribution. This includes tracking metrics such as export revenue per worker, the proportion of Nigerian providers selling outcomes rather than hours, and the number of Nigerian firms that become multinational enterprises.
Ultimately, Nigeria's goal should be to build a durable and prosperous economy that is not solely reliant on cheap labor. By focusing on high-value services and the development of advanced AI tools, Nigeria can create a thriving industry that generates significant revenue and creates high-paying jobs for its citizens. This requires a nuanced understanding of the impact of AI on the global job market and a willingness to adapt and evolve in response to changing circumstances.
Key points
- Nigeria's talent export strategy must adapt to the increasing use of AI technology in the global job market.
- The country must focus on delivering high-value services that require human skills and judgment.
- Nigeria's goal should be to build a durable and prosperous economy that is not solely reliant on cheap labor.
