No I will not think of it that way.
That’s the line employers use when they want you to settle. Good devs won’t settle, especially when they know there are people willing to pay what they’re worth… and in $$$ 
2 Likes
Yes team it’s important.
Average ecommerce website using Woo Commerce $250 will do a good job Indian developer will take this job straight.
Okay ooooo good luck with your millions of Naira per month salary
2 Likes
I just like this guy. Keep telling them the truth.
The fact that you said cheap indians do a good job tells me that you have no idea of what you are saying. not ready to educate you either. best of luck in your search for cheap developers
2 Likes
It’s the reality you have to deal with.
The global village is catching up with us, technology labour is next.
No footballer ever dream of skilling up enough to play for the local league (ManU or Barca remains the dream).
Doctors in this part of the world toll everyday to pass an exam to practice abroad.
Do you think this doesnt apply to developers? We are paid in naira but most things we want to buy are in dollars (macbook, iphone, smart gadgets, etc)
There seem to be a wide gap among expectations, requirements and result. Customers remain the king. Franking speaking, Dev jobs are over-priced in Nigeria. A small dev company of 5-10 techies want to bill the same as the one with 11 - 50 techies but the customer expects the same result.
I see no solution soon, our orientation doesn’t respond to economic forces.
3 Likes
How do you evaluate what’s overprice or what’s not? Do they bring lesser value to the table. work less than their colleague, they don’t make enough impact? How did you come to this conclusion?
Of course this is what they’d say!
2 Likes
I feel like I came to this party late - but as this is a topic that has actually been top of mind for me for a few days, I’d still have a go at it.
“Andela extends engineering teams with world-class software developers. We recruit the most talented developers on the African continent, shape them into technical leaders, and place them as full-time distributed team members with companies…”
source: Andela website (20 seconds ago)
I’d like to first point out a very white elephant in the room that we are calling a sculpture, Andela is not an Africa-focused business - it is a business!
Andela is operating a time tested BPO model.
Don’t get me wrong, I love what is happening at our favorite Naijarican company, and it can only do more good than harm to Nigeria’s eco system, so please, more of the same! But how many truly competitive Nigerian companies can afford Andela’s pricing? (I’ve attempted ‘pricing’ it twice and have now respected myself!)
There’s the arguement that only the best of the best (top 1%) get into Andela and as a result get trained and get exported/exposed, how about the other 99%, or to be realistic, the other top 29%?
I think what the good ex-minister is clamouring for is more of a developer training centre (factory?) than a developer outsourcing centre, one that is tasked with just creating developer supply of varied standards, so that our egbons that want to pay N1m monthly can pick the top of the class, and our other egbons who want to pay N20k can also pick someone (or something). And that truly is where we need to go! It’s not only the top 1% that will help build our unicorns, we need the top everyone! We need a place where everyone that wants to code can come learn and have a shot, and then go out and practice and teach others and make a good living. There’s nothing myopic about this point of view, it’s actually what needs to happen sooner or later, else once the business climate gets cooler (and cheaper) elsewhere, the Andela Nigeria buzz will fizzle and the remaining 100,000 Africans will be gotten from Andela Congo or somewhere else!
PS: This training centre can also be a business, charge a fee to filter (un)serious people out.
PPS: Quick story: Some years back living in Mauritius, I did some work for a company that offered commercial ‘technical’ customer support for Facebook, targeted at Americans (yes, those guys pay for people to explain how to upload profile pictures, etc), and part of this was a rigorous 1 month day and night training on all things fb, and only the best were put on live inbound calls. They were a big employer of labor (1000+) and the government had given huge concessions to them.
The company did well, and made a ton of money until some legal issues hit, and in a weekend had packed up and moved to India, only the local founders were taken along! The other top people were working remotely, but months down the line, there was no system in place to train more people, and the pipeline dried.
This could happen to us if we don’t actively train more supply (big ups to the HotelsNG’s, Switch’s, Projaro’s, and of course Andela’s) who are battling this!
13 Likes
We like to talk in Nigeria sha!!! When I said we needed a state of emergency in education people did not understand it. This is a supply and demand problem and has always existed when it came to talent. It is the reason my uncles went abroad 40 years ago and never returned. It is the same reason why I left.
Tech is not a utility yet in most of Africa, it is a top end luxury. India and China made it an industry by massively training people who looked outwards first before they looked inwards. Africa is part of the World. When ideas that have real demand come into play, the tide will shift.
A local company in Kenya is paying much more than any foreign company now (even Andela) because there is demand for their products. They are looking for 60 devs and shaking that market. They have demand for their products and they have funding. 8 years ago, we were already paying Engineers $3000+ monthly at Swifta when they were on-site around Africa because “there was demand”. You can’t build World Class businesses without demand. Testing time is over. This is no longer a drill. We are now in the real World. Build it and they will come. Create Demand. Create Supply.
10 Likes
as opposed to? ¯\(ツ)/¯
I’d have to go with @jamesorior here.
If you are an employer who hires developers a lot, you’d definitely prefer Indian developers. I mean, the first country @mark mentioned in his tweet was India. It’s not a coincidence. Those guys are hardworking and they are willign to get paid less to do the job.
They also don’t give excuses for not delivering as at when due even though some of them live in areas without power supply.
They don’t collect less money because they are stupid, they do it because they are competing with American and European developers who are really expensive.
Many projects are priced at global standards but delivery is even below local standard. This is very common. I have had to finish many jobs that huge sums of money were paid for and yet they don’t deliver. Whatever price you are asking, you must meet the value. If anyone is to pay you 250,000 per month, your job should be able to produce at least 1 million value monthly.
1 Like
When you pay peanuts, monkeys will come work for you. I’ve hired and I’ve been hired, so I know how it feels either way.
5 Likes
I will not say that all Indian devs are bad, but most of them do not follow best practices, thus doing a shitty job for you.
I have seen job posts where it is clearly written that Indians should not apply! I also heard of a well-known Nigerian company that had their app started by Indians, if you hear what those guys did on that app ehn, you will leave your mouth opened for not less than 5 minutes.
If you are looking for a $50 developer, you will get a $50 job that you might end up spending more on in the near future.
About having a longer throat, I think that is everywhere. If you have the chance to do the same job for different pay, won’t you choose the one with higher pay?
1 Like
What nonsense!
One of those that thinks they’re doing you a favor when they give you their miserly 250k to die for them.
Obviously not a dev.
3 Likes
So why do we complain when some devs decides to look elsewhere where they can make more money? We shouldn’t complain because it’s their choice. You guys should meet pastors to start preaching that our youths have big eyes.
What?? Per Year?? that has to be a typo
4 Likes
This must really be a typo! Maybe he meant per month.