Sir? You were saying?
dang. You just bursted my bubbles. You said it all Onyeka.
Baba? 
Iâm looking for data, not anonymity. How much do Nigerian developers earn?
@fran Unless you want to ask for someoneâs salary in particular, I believe the beginning of this thread did justice to that question.
1 Like
you refer to: > when the gold average was 120K ?
that gives an idea but it is not very helpful.
Perhaps a better way to frame an answer without being particular would be to say, At Company X / Startup B, Nigerian developers earn N ACD p/a.
I understand that not everyone can be like the Buffer team that share everything including their salary structure and actual salaries, but I found this other approach http://techpoint.ng/nigerian-developers-are-underpaid/ very helpful from a comparison perspective because it told you what devs earn at certain named companies.
Not that. I was referring to the overall vibe from the thread. Basically, the answer is Nigerian developers earn anything upwards of 100k but donât get close to 500k. You certainly appear to be fishing for (and complaining about the lack of) specifics but the thread title doesnât say âHow much do developers at Interswitch earn?â.
You know what to do to get the answer you want. Ask.
1 Like
I feel salary comparison holds little weight without understanding what the developer does, how much value they bring to their environment and what the environment is like.
I remember starting out building sites for an entrepreneur at $15/hr, fresh from a $10/hr menial job. After months of work, I realized my work and advice was saving the client about $1500 per month in Yellow Pages listing charges. I went in to ask for a raise of $20, misspoke and said $25. The client quickly agreed. Was I doing anything differently from when I was getting paid $15? No.
In fact my next two rate raises didnât actually come from technical skill acquisition, though there was a lot of that. It came from being able to pose myself as a good business proposition. Thatâs what this all boils down to.
You may or may not be better than people elsewhere in the world, but your compensation is mostly tied to the businessâ conditions and perspective, not yours.
What you get paid is more a reflection of the company than it is of yourself.
Or to put it another way:
Nigerians devs get paid a lot or a little, depending on who and where their client is.
4 Likes
Iâm happy with specifics, I tend to get bored and suspicious with anonymity and generalizations.
Thanks for distilling 100k to <500k.
I absolutely love that you make this point. There are a lot of references to what a developer is âworthâ. I think that worth is somewhat subjective and often related to the value the business is able to get from the developer
Job Review site with Salaries http://buhunda.com/
Someone needs to carry out a proper survey of the environment, where are all these recruitment agencies?
1 Like
$10 an hour is still $36000 a year and those are 80-hour work weeks with no vacation or weekend breaks. Still far ahead $10000 but there are a lot of things you can factor in to drive the difference down.
Thanks for this @Tonianni
Good one from Onyeka. For me I will rather advice that we do not expect too much
from the Nigerian Tech industry as regards high salary pay for now. The
truth is, we dont really have a visible technology city or tech start-up
community that can boast of a viable market or sustainable paronage
yet. If we are expecting to see Tech companies pay high salaries in the
range of 500k or above, we need to give Nigeria some time and also shift
our attention away from the error of âComparing thriving Innovative
Businesses to Innovative Technology Startupsâ.
I get flipbirds in my tummy each time we keep mentioning Konga,
Jumia, iROKO etc. as tech faces or innovation here in Nigeria. With due
respect to these companies and those who run them, I will say they are
just mere businesses that have been smart enough to adopt the use of
viable technologies to get anything on their platforms tranformed from
the inside to the outside. Tech innovators bring in noble and
never-seen-before inventions and the solution offered is as unique as the innovative features it boasts of. For a country like Nigeria with a very low literate
population level when compared with the likes of UK, US, Europe etc, we still have a lot
to do in createing a global tech dynamo city. We should start from formulating policies that will allow an enabling environment for Rapid Mass Education and Tech Entrepreneurs to grow.
When these two are in place like Bankole rightly said in his response on this issue, the market can
then pay for the innovative products and services churned out by viable
start ups who bring decent and needed solutions to the market. PEOPLE
drive innovation which later creates the market cash and not the other
way round. When Mark invented Facebook, he started with a viable
environment and an educated community of young minds. But before he knew
it, the enabling environment propelled Facebook to greater hieghts in
less than 4 years! A similar pathway toâwhat I call ââPowerful
Popularityââ that took the likes of IBM and General Electric over 20
years to attain.
In my opinion, what I think we need now is first- a Solid Groud-Up
campaign or advocacy for a Massive Education Programmes for all
Nigerians of all ages and Africa as a whole. Two we need to start
mounting pressure on our Political leaders and administartors, Senators,
Ministers and Representatives. They must begin to formulate relevant
laws and policies that will unbundle and refresh our collective
creativity, freeing the Nigerian Tech scene from every inanity of the
status quo and propelling us towards the tresholds of the originality of
our noble courses.
This is TechCabalâs radar platform, we can start from here. We are
growing in this community and more visionaries will join us soon. If you
can lias with one or two radar members in your senatorial district,
book an appointment to see the honorable senators, representatives,
commissioners etc. in your district. In our meeting, make a case for
this two areas and follow up. I tell you this, these guys now know the
power of the younger people and the spirit of resilence that we have
when it comes to changing the status quo, they will push your
postulations as their top priorities. If we agree to this⌠before
2018, we will have the topmost 5, most powerful global tech-preneurs
visit Nigeria as angel investors eagerly looking to take stakes in your
start up. Just watchâŚ
3 Likes
For me I will rather advice that we do not expect too much
from the Nigerian Tech industry as regards high salary pay for now. The
truth is, we dont really have a visible technology city or tech start-up
community that can boast of a viable market or sustainable paronage
yet. If we are expecting to see Tech companies pay high salaries in the
range of 500k or above, we need to give Nigeria some time and also shift
our attention away from the error of âComparing thriving Innovative
Businesses to Innovative Technology Startupsâ.
I get flipbirds in my tummy each time we keep mentioning Konga,
Jumia, iROKO etc. as tech faces or innovation here in Nigeria. With due
respect to these companies and those who run them, I will say they are
just mere businesses that have been smart enough to adopt the use of
viable technologies to get anything on their platforms tranformed from
the inside to the outside. Tech innovators bring in noble and
never-seen-before inventions and the solution offered is as unique as the innovative features it boasts of. For a country like Nigeria with a very low literate
population level when compared with the likes of UK, US, Europe etc, we still have a lot
to do in createing a global tech dynamo city. We should start from formulating policies that will allow an enabling environment for Rapid Mass Education and Tech Entrepreneurs to grow.
When these two are in place like Bankole rightly said in his response on this issue, the market can
then pay for the innovative products and services churned out by viable
start ups who bring decent and needed solutions to the market. PEOPLE
drive innovation which later creates the market cash and not the other
way round. When Mark invented Facebook, he started with a viable
environment and an educated community of young minds. But before he knew
it, the enabling environment propelled Facebook to greater hieghts in
less than 4 years! A similar pathway toâwhat I call ââPowerful
Popularityââ that took the likes of IBM and General Electric over 20
years to attain.
In my opinion, what I think we need now is first- a Solid Groud-Up
campaign or advocacy for a Massive Education Programmes for all
Nigerians of all ages and Africa as a whole. Two we need to start
mounting pressure on our Political leaders and administartors, Senators,
Ministers and Representatives. They must begin to formulate relevant
laws and policies that will unbundle and refresh our collective
creativity, freeing the Nigerian Tech scene from every inanity of the
status quo and propelling us towards the tresholds of the originality of
our noble courses.
This is TechCabalâs radar platform, we can start from here. We are
growing in this community and more visionaries will join us soon. If you
can lias with one or two radar members in your senatorial district,
book an appointment to see the honorable senators, representatives,
commissioners etc. in your district. In our meeting, make a case for
this two areas and follow up. I tell you this, these guys now know the
power of the younger people and the spirit of resilence that we have
when it comes to changing the status quo, they will push your
postulations as their top priorities. If we agree to this⌠before
2018, we will have the topmost 5, most powerful global tech-preneurs
visit Nigeria as angel investors eagerly looking to take stakes in your
start up. Just watchâŚ
1 Like
Engineers at Iroko will be earning between N150k (minimum) and N400k. If we find senior super stars. We will pay more. We are looking for 22+ positions. I will post the finer details later. Hope this adds to the debate.
17 Likes
One can begin to get a sense for what nigerian developers earn (at least at the larger firms) by browsing salaries at http://www.glassdoor.com. From my casual browse through the site, the previously discussed N150 << 500k range seems reasonable.
Comparisons with silicon valley arenât helpful unless we have a good way to factor in purchasing power. For example someone flipping burgers at MacDonals in San Fransisco will earn at least $11+/hr minimum wage. At 40 hours a week, (at current exchange rates) weâre at >> N350k monthly. Who actually believes this person can build/own a home in SF on those wages?
Also, although many Nigerian developers are exceptional, even when one factors in purchasing power, itâs hard to argue youâre getting the same value as youâd get for most classes of SV devs⌠A lot can be said for the experience developers gain from working in such a unique environment
I think a better measure is: does the salary allow developers to acquire high-value assets (e.g. a home) and/or provide the developer with enough disposable income that starting their own business within a few years is a reasonable option?
5 Likes
Excuse my ignorance, but when yâall are quoting prices, itâs per month right? So the top end at Iroko (400K per month) would be $2K per month? So, $24K a year? Hmmm. Are these entry-level salaries?
No, thatâs âa lotâ in Nigeria, doing the direct dollar conversion doesnât paint the true picture.
1 Like
@keneeke You may want to read the entire thread from the beginning. You canât compare salaries across countries like that as though the economic realities of their citizens are exactly alike.
1 Like
I did read from the beginning though. Iâve also lived in Nigeria, so I know the lay of the land. The difference is still pretty staggering to me. Itâs a nascent industry though, so I guess Iâm just going to have to hope for growth.
1 Like