Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Paragraph: 22
The UK Government should be more proactive in initiating programmes that build the capacity of...
Recommendation
The UK Government should be more proactive in initiating programmes that build the capacity of the Nigerian IT workforce. Such programmes have the potential to be beneficial to both countries. We recommend the FCDO lead a pilot skills development programme within the ICT sector that aims to address skills shortages in both Nigeria and the UK. This initiative, requiring close collaboration with other Government departments including the Home Office and BEIS, would be an approach that actively seeks to reduce the chance of a brain drain scenario by ensuring that a proportion of trainees are being trained for jobs they will fill in Nigeria. We recommend that the FCDO ensures in all such programmes rural areas are not sidelined and that candidates from these areas are enabled to participate.
Paragraph Reference:
22
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We partially agree with this recommendation. The FCDO agrees on the need to engage proactively in the digital and IT sector and space but would reflect that evidence does not support the need for ODA spend on skills capacity building programmes in that sector. In depth global FCDO research has found that narrowly focused skills programmes were not as cost effective (in terms of value for money) when compared with other potential ODA programme interventions. Our IT sector interventions have responded to this evidence and therefore now seek to foster innovation and create an enabling environment in which innovators can thrive. As well as the Digital Access Programme referred to in the report, the UK also has a Skills For Prosperity Programme (S4P) programme which works on technology skills. The design of the S4P programme - to work on skills where there are jobs demanding the skills, rather than assuming that provision of skills will create jobs where they did not already exist - reflects the review of our previous Apprenticeship and Community-Based Skills Training programme, MAFITA. The MAFITA programme was closed early as the cost per person was high relative to other programmes: it was found to cost about £920 to train a person, or £2,370 per job created in a Nigeria northern skills programme, whereas other programmes showed that they can create long term income routes for the poor for between £20 and £30 per person. The World Bank’s David McKenzie has extensively reviewed a suite of evidence on skills programmes and came to the same finding. Consequently, the S4P programme works with businesses to meet their existing, current demand and create sustainable models for funding IT training, for example through loans. Nigerian state governments such as Edo state are picking up this model and adopting it themselves through their own tech training hubs with potential employers – both onshore in Nigeria and offshore. In line with the IDS and as the FCDO plans future ODA spending, the UK Government would intend therefore to prioritise work on investment facilitation and proportionate regulation over support to narrowly focused skills programmes. The impact of arbitrary regulatory decisions and a lack of consultation are the main complaints from tech investors in Nigeria (rather than lack of skilled workers).