Nigeria’s foremost business group, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has expressed concern over the rate at which expatriates, especially from Asia, have been flooding the country and taking over jobs in areas where Nigerians have competence. According to local media reports Thursday, the group also urged the government to focus its attention on developing the business cluster initiative, which it embarked upon some years ago.
“It has taken a long time for action to be taken. We want the ministry of trade and investment to work towards ensuring that the clusters are completed and ready for industrialists,” LCCI Director-General Muda Yusuf, was quoted as saying.
LCCI said the mass influx of expatriates into Nigeria had become a matter of grave concern, given that the unemployment situation in the country.
“At the heart of this predicament is the flagrant violation of the expatriate quota policy made possible with the collusion of some unscrupulous officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service,” Yusuf said.
The LCCI boss linked the development to “so much corruption in the immigration service”, saying this was creating room for non-Nigerians to come into the country with impunity and take up jobs that Nigerians should be doing.
He said the federal government’s policy of employment creation would be difficult to realize with this kind of development on ground.
“If we are really serious about tackling unemployment, we should put a stop to this influx. There should in fact be an audit of companies to ensure compliance with extant rules and policy on such matters,” Yusuf said.