DAILY TRUST
Nigeria’s economic crisis has plunged millions of its citizens into poverty. The situation is dire in the northern region, where insecurity, poor infrastructure and low human capacity development have worsened living conditions. In this report, Daily Trust Saturday captured a migration trend among northern youths who leave the shores of Nigeria in search of better living conditions in the Middle East and North Africa.
Hassan Dantsoho, a graduate of the Yusuf Maitama Sule University in Kano State plans to relocate to Kuwait, one of the world’s oil-rich countries in the Middle East.
Five years after his graduation from the university, Dantsoho remains unemployed but anticipates a better life across Nigeria’s borders.
With a well mapped out plan and an anticipated N40million in fortunes within two years, the 30-year-old is optimistic that by the end of February 2024 he would bid farewell to his family in Kano, North West Nigeria, for a new life in Kuwait.
“My plan is to start a travel agency when I make it to Kuwait,” he told this reporter in December 2023.
“I will then focus on health personnel and other skilled and unskilled persons in Nigeria who want to migrate.
“If you take plumbing for example, the Arab do not delve into such menial jobs, but if you take our people to Kuwait they will do it and earn at least N600,000 as monthly income,” Dantsoho said.
Dantsoho is already building a network and scouting for big companies in Kuwait that require employees from Nigeria, especially from the medical field.
“As a doctor in Kuwait you can earn a salary of at least N6million a month. So, with that you won’t need to return to Nigeria; instead, you can invest by building a hospital in the country,” he said.
Faced with unemployment at home, Dantsoho is one of many Nigerians from the northern region whose dream for a better life is pushing to seek better opportunities in foreign lands, such as Kuwait, Qatar, Algeria and other Middle East and North African countries.
Records show a growing migration trend in Nigeria, with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) tracking about 243, 121 persons who migrated from Nigeria to different countries in 2022.
The record, which is based on migrants’ health assessment, shows that 196,695 Nigerians migrated to the United Kingdom, while 40,706 persons migrated to Canada and 2,428 persons to the United States of America in the same year. It also captured 3,280 persons who migrated to Austria, while 12 persons migrated to unspecified destinations.
