Shettima pitches Nigeria as global outsourcing hub

Vice President Kashim Shettima has pitched Nigeria as the next major destination for global outsourcing, urging international businesses to tap into the country’s growing pool of young, digitally skilled and English-speaking professionals.

Shettima said Nigeria was positioning itself to capture a greater share of the fast-growing global outsourcing market, with the Federal Government targeting one million export-linked jobs by 2030, up from an estimated 20,000 Nigerians currently employed by domestic and international outsourcing firms.

The Vice President made the pitch at the global launch of the Hire From Nigeria campaign in New York, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.

His keynote address was delivered on his behalf by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia.

“While much of the industrialised world grows older, and quietly wonders who will fill the productivity vacuum, Nigeria produces, every single year, a new generation of digitally fluent, English-speaking, ambitious young men and women, ready to serve the world from the home front and from a time zone that is convenient for almost every continent,” he said.

Shettima said the global outsourced services market was expected to exceed $1tn in the coming years, noting that Africa currently accounted for only a small fraction of the market.

“The global market for outsourced services will be worth over a trillion dollars in a few years’ time. It is, in truth, one of the great transfers of opportunity in modern economic history, and Africa’s share of it remains barely a rounding error.

“And so I put it to you plainly: Nigeria is the next frontier for global outsourcing,” he added.

The Hire From Nigeria initiative is a private sector-led and government-supported campaign aimed at connecting Nigerian professionals, skilled workers, digital experts, creatives and service providers with international employers and markets.

The New York event followed the national launch of the campaign in Abuja on August 31, 2026.

The initiative seeks to make Nigerian talent easier for international businesses to identify and hire, while deepening the country’s participation in the global services and digital economy.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said the programme brought together four key priorities of the President Bola Tinubu administration—youth development, job creation, services and digital trade.

“Hire From Nigeria brings together four of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s priorities: youth, job creation, services and digital trade,” Oduwole said.

“We are reshaping the talent pipeline, working together across government and the private sector to take full advantage of the opportunity that lies ahead.”

Also speaking, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said Nigeria missed the first major wave of global outsourcing about 25 to 30 years ago and was determined not to miss the current opportunity.

Alausa described education as critical to the government’s ambition of building a $1tn economy by 2030.

He said ongoing reforms were aimed at changing the country’s education value chain to ensure that Nigerians acquired skills relevant to the labour market.

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According to him, the objective is to ensure that “people are not just learning for the sake of learning; they’re learning to provide solutions and learning to earn.”

The President and co-founder of Tech4Dev, Joel Ogunsola, said Africa’s outsourcing market was growing three times faster than comparable global markets.

Ogunsola said domestic and international outsourcing companies already employed an estimated 20,000 Nigerians across customer and business operations, technology and data, as well as specialised and regulated services.

He said increasing that number substantially would require demand-driven skills development, easier access to talent and stronger trust between Nigerian professionals and international employers.

“Nigeria’s investment in skills has to be demand-driven, talent must be easy to find, we must build trust, and we must then match the talent to jobs,” he said.

“If you’re an international business looking to set up and hire in Nigeria, Hire From Nigeria will support you.”

The Country Director for Nigeria at the Mastercard Foundation, Rosy Fynn, said training programmes must respond directly to labour-market demand rather than producing skills for which jobs might not exist.

She said the foundation’s approach was “not to train first and look for jobs, but instead to understand what the market is looking for, and provide the training and talent to fit the need.”

The co-founder and Executive Chairman of Itana, Luqman Edu, said Nigeria possessed the talent needed by international companies, adding that efforts were being made to provide the infrastructure required for Nigerians to compete globally.

“Nigeria has the talent, and we are providing the infrastructure to ensure this talent can solve the world’s problems at competitive pricing,” Edu said.

The Divisional Head of Multilaterals at the Bank of Industry, Yinka Adegboye, who represented the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Olasupo Olusi, said the bank would continue to support young Nigerian entrepreneurs through initiatives including the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises programme.

The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Identity Management Commission, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, also said reforms were underway to strengthen digital trust through credentials that could be verified locally and internationally.

According to the organisers, the launch attracted representatives from the outsourcing, financial services, manufacturing, education and healthcare sectors as well as development partners.

Representatives of several Federal Government agencies, including the National Information Technology Development Agency, National Identity Management Commission, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and Galaxy Backbone Limited, also attended.

Hire From Nigeria is championed by Tech4Dev and Univelcity in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment through the National Talent Export Programme.

The initiative is also supported by the Federal Ministry of Education, Bank of Industry through iDICE, Mastercard Foundation and other government institutions, development partners and private-sector stakeholders.