The International Office on Migration has revealed that the number of Nigerians who ‘japa’ on a yearly basis has increased from thirty thousand (30,000) in 2023 to two hundred and seventy six thousand (276,000) in 2024.
OIM Country Representative, Paola Pace disclosed this in Abuja at the presentation of three documents on the 2019 Labour Migration Reports, developed by the National Bureau of Statistics, the International Labour Organisation, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association.
‘Japa’, as it is popularly called in Nigeria these days, is an aged long movement of persons from one country to another, either for study, work, and live.
It is the presentation of three documents on 2019 labour migration in Nigeria.
The documents are the 2019 Labour Migration Report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the revised Code of Conduct for Private Employment Agencies by the Human Capital Providers Association of Nigeria and a report from the Study on the Landscape of the Working Conditions of Migrant Workers in Nigeria by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.
While the focus of these documents is on migrant workers in Nigeria, there was time to present a staggering number of Nigerians leaving the country in search of greener pastures.
Paola Pace is an official of the international office on migration in Nigeria.
Further breakdown of the report shows 83% out 85% of migrant workers in Nigeria are employed and are mostly in the Construction, Agriculture, Hospitality, and Food Sectors.
The reports also aim to generate data of Migrants, 15 years and above, migrants living in private homes, level of Education of Migrant workers, and the average income of employed migrant workers in Nigeria.
The 2019 Labour Migration Report was developed by the National Bureau of Statistics, jointly with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in collaboration with the International Labour Organization, over the period of 2019 through 2023.
(Editor: Nkoli Omhoudu)
