The title got you this far? Great. This is a rant, not a racist something.
This is not even about Indian Developers themselves, its about the appetite of Nigerian software projects owners have for them. Back in my Konga days, I heard a manager say Nigerian developers weren’t good enough and we should hire indians, they were the best, bla bla bla. We did hire indians to supplement the team and I found myself having to explain to an Indian developer who is been billed at $2000/mo how AndroidTestRunner works and pulling code from Github that broke the build. That whole experience was unreal.
Indian developers be making out like a bandit on Nigerian project owners.
Now I see the same things happening again but this time I’m on the other side watching Nigerian project owners been billed crazy amounts for simple something and there are no excuses now, from @Andela to @DevCenterco, there are options now. I’m not even understanding anymore, if our talent gap is that large then maybe we should really concentrate on closing that gap rather than try to build an app that lets people type ‘Amen’.
Sorry about your experience. You should have tested his skill before employing. You cant just randomly go and hire people because of their nationality without testing their skills. Your HR dept needs classes.
I don’t think it’s a question of Nationality. It’s a demand/supply/quality issue. If there are numerous Nigerian developers that are good/affordable then why not? The market will always move. There was a time that we all relied on foreign musicians and films for entertainment until nollywood/naija entertainers stepped up their game and claimed market share
PS: A brother, on radar, dropped a link to his app pricing website. For a simple Phonegap app with notifications, his website calculated $24,000 (=N=7,680,000) at 320Naira to a dollar. No body has time to be pricing with such clowns when there is a sanjay or gupta somewhere that will do it efficiently for $800 dollars and be asking for more work?.
Not their fault to be fair, project lead was a very experienced guy and he answered all the questions but he’s also fronting on more than 10 other projects.
You pay dearly for cheap Indian labor. Especially on big projects. But for $5 design gigs on fiverr, you may be in danger of falling in love with them Indians.
My best hires have been Ukrainians; East Europeans in general. Excellent devs, love programming, highly disciplined. And best part; quite affordable.
The Nigerian advantage is not so much in price or quality, it’s easier on liability, especially communication flow. But person wey wan mess you up go mess you up nonetheless even if you guys squat in the same LGA.
The best Russian/Ukrainian dev - both nationals claim a distinction from each other I however, don’t see much difference - and the best Nigerian dev may go for the same hourly rate. But the latter may be taking classes from the former without knowing it.
Lol, well there are levels of Indian developers and one thing you have to consider before you give out jobs to them are as follows.
Communication barrier
Quality of service
Dedication
Budget
Experience level
Pats projects samples and the list go on and on
I am talking from experience because I have given our over 30 projects out to Indian developers
Common projects people hire them for these days
eCommerce website [Wordpress, Woocommerce] Most Indian developer will do this for you without stress
eCommerce website [Bespoke] fully hand coded HTML, CSS and using any php framework not all Indian developer can do this
eCommerce website [Magento] Not all Indian developers can do this.
Online Marketplace [Wordpress] not all developers can do this
Online Marketplace [Bespsoke] fully hand coded HTML, CSS and using any php framework not all Indian developer can do this
Other web projects some will do and some will not even have a clue what you what doing.
Not all Indian developers both company or single freelance know how to use Jira, Git, Bitbucket, Odoo, Basecamp etc so work with them in a way you feel your project will be delivered best and when you start managing in house you can implement other form of code and project management tools.
Another thing you have to understand is that some Indian are single freelancer while some have a team, those with a team tend to give better service but limited to 9 to 5. Single freelancers tend to be committed and they work even more than you pay for most of the time long hours etc because they always want more projects from you again.
In general rule, what you have to consider before you award any projects out are as follows and they are based of projects.
Be clear on the specification and don’t change your mind later without discussing on time and budget changes.
If you are technical. develop the entire interactive prototype in Axure RP or similar tool of your product and a well written documentation of features and functionalities. [This will save you alot of costs. and time to understand your project
If you have good understanding of how you back-end system works, develop the enter database and give them to make changes if needed 9 out 10 they would nothing else to add.
This will really cut down your cost
Generally Indian developers are good, and I have had good experience with some few bad ones though but in all very good.
Like the following website done by them http://www.uxshape.com/ [currently being upgraded and new site will be available]
What is setting Nigerian developers back is that they tend to charge the client location currency equivalents which customers will not want to pay for.
Guy - chill na. I think that’s a bit uncharitable. A man’s price is his price. You shouldn’t disparage him for that alone.
For all you know, the $24000 is a subtle filter for the kind of clients the developer wants to work with. There are people making close to $1mln p.a in Lagos building Xamarin apps and other related services and they don’t rack up those figures by billing $800 a pop.
To be honest, I did not see any Naija guy. and I don’t use freelance website anymore, So the developers I Have I keep them for future jobs,
For example, I ask a friend to do a graphic job for me, and I have not heard from him since then.
Why I like Indians is that they are committed if you are good to them, But Naija I never try them oooo but the green light is not there yet to be honest…
That is why Naija developers don’t get work that much, They have to start charging based on local value so if you think N250,000 will develop an app or website go for it rather wanting to score big with one project.
Guy to be honest I don’t have the slightest idea what you are saying here.
You mean u don’t use Nigerian developers cus u never tried them? Did u try the Indians before using them?
Or
U don’t use Nigerian developers cause ur graphics friend hasn’t returned ur job? Did you even pay the guy?
Or is it because u favor Oyibo (Indians are just like us with longer hair) to Nigerians?
Cause I really don’t see what’s in your projects that we can’t do. Better sef.
What i mean by communication barrier is that you have to understand that if developers English is not good. its your job to get the best out of the people working for you.
I for one don’t really look at English before I give work out.
Let me put it this way “Developer cannot think for themselves” Unless you help them think meaning until you explain what you need in great detail [specifications] developers cannot do anything you ask them to.
What I see is Naija developers think they know your project better than you the owner.
