‘Japa’ syndrome hits IMC industry
By Felicia Nwosu
In the late 60s, 70s up till the early 80s, Nigeria was a destination of choice for professionals and golden fleece seekers, in those days. There were Indian, Philippine Ghanaian South American teachers, and Egyptian teachers, doctors, and construction professionals who were employed by the regional/ state governments, Federal Government, or private establishments. These professionals were happy to come to Nigeria in search of greener pastures.
Things turned awry in the mid-80s with the overthrow of the Shagari regime and the enthronement of the Buhari-led draconian military administration on December 1983. Since then, there was a gradual reversal of the above-stated trend which reached a culmination during the Babangida- era with the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme, (SAP). This was when Nigerian professionals started leaving the country in droves to find greener pastures.
From the few ‘Andrews that were checking out’ in the 80s, we have come full cycle to the ‘Japa Syndrome’ that has now hit us in the face as doctors, engineers, nurses, computer engineers, professors and researchers, students, and artisans are daily exiting or bent on exiting the country.
Japa is a locally coined word for emigration. It best describes the situation where most people in the productive population bracket aspire to relocate to America, Europe, or the Middle East, or in the worst case scenario, anywhere, in search of greener pastures. This is an apparent reaction to the harsh economic realities in the country caused mainly by mismanagement and lopsided priorities.
It appears, however, that it is neither Nigeria nor underdeveloped economies alone that may be the only sufferers from this ailment. A recent World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and consultancy MediaSense report revealed in a report that Marketing is facing its “worst-ever” talent crisis according to new research, titled: ‘Media’s Got Talent?’
According to the report, nearly half (48 percent) of all advertisers, agencies, ad tech companies, and media owners think the industry is facing such a crisis, peaking at 54% among agencies. 77 percent of respondents reported “some” or “high” scarcity of talent in their organisation, peaking at 85 percent in the agency and ad tech sectors, 81 percent in the US and 93 percent in APAC.
Overall, 67 percent of all respondents (76 percent in APAC) believe that talent scarcity is proving to be a major blocker to growth.
The findings come from some of the world’s largest advertisers, agencies, media platforms, and technology companies.
Matt Green, WFA Director Global Media Services says: “The talent crisis is affecting all parts of the industry and clients are feeling the pinch within their internal global media teams. But, as this research shows, the impact is particularly pronounced on the agency side and this is having a profound impact on the ability of clients to execute campaigns globally. Sooner or later someone (advertisers presumably) will need to pay for the multi-skilled polymaths they say they require.
In Nigeria, the same trend is also rearing its ugly head with a devastating impact on practitioners in the IMC industry. The tension caused by the talent- crisis, according to many industry leaders is heightened by the ‘Japa syndrome’ which saw of the brilliant brains in the industry running away for greener pasture outside the shores of Nigeria.
Uche Ugbor, Managing Director and Founder, Ark Technologies Group, expressed worry over the development and noted that its implication for the growth of the industry will be huge.
“One of the biggest challenges now is the brain-drain syndrome; there is a massive ‘japa’ as we call it. The young people that are supposed to be doing the work are all leaving. It is not because they don’t love Nigeria again, and you won’t blame them. It is because of how harsh the economy is and the realities they found themselves in. It has become a worrisome challenge for every employer of labour, including myself, that every younger person working with you is definitely planning to leave for Canada or any other country, and they won’t even tell you. You know within you that they will definitely leave and these are people you have trained over the years. It is very painful and demoralising. If you talk to young people between the ages of 24-34 on the street today who have professional skills with educational good grades, none of them is hoping to stay back and work. Out of 20, 15 are already processing papers to go somewhere else. It is affecting us.”
Oti Ukubeyinje, Senior VP, Products, Terragon who shared his experience on the effect of talent crisis while working with an agency said the lack of professionals could have a negative impact on the outcome of consumers’ insights.
When I was in an agency in 2015, they had a data analyst, and I felt this was awesome, as not a lot of agencies have data analysts. Six months in, they guy left. We never replaced him, and every day, we felt that burn because everybody then became a data analyst. We would do report, manufacture insights and were using numbers to fit into the narrative that we wanted the client to hear, and it was absolutely wrong. I am sure if we had a professional analyst, and I used the word professional very tightly, he would have discouraged that behavior.
The President of the Association of Digital Marketing Professionals (ADMARP) said further: “To integrate better with clients and to improve on our relationship, it is really to discourage that client behavior where an agency is working for you, they come into your office, instead of you to try to work with the agency, you are thinking of which of their staff that you want to still, please stop, it is not helping the agencies.”
The Terragon VP pointed out the need to acquire new skillsets for today that will also present businesses for future-fit purposes.
“I would say within the media and communications industry, one of the biggest gaps in terms of skills that should be fixed very fast is data scientists, and not just data scientist but also data engineers. I say this because, the scientist will do the soft part, but for that to be repeatable, you need the engineers to build solutions around that. I will draw down a little deeper, today, when our clients say let us go and do some research before coming out with strategies, we are quick to either hit the streets or pay research companies, to take what I will call intent and attitudinal data. There is a big gap, agencies need to build competences in software to plug into the ecosystem that provides that data.”
Steve Babaeko, President, Association of Adverting Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, expressed great concern over how Nigerian professionals, after investing in their human development, are leaving the country for greener pastures.
“We are passionate about creating jobs and building businesses. Given the state of the country at the moment, now you have human capital issues, you train young people hoping that they can at least work for another 2-3 years, but next tomorrow they are on their way to Canada or somewhere else. You really can’t blame them because they just feel that the country is not conducive enough. All of those challenges are increasing by the day, and to now make matters worse, the state of insecurity in the country has worsened beyond imaginable levels. Those things have a very direct way of impacting negatively on businesses, and those are the things we’ve been grappling with for a while.”
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