RE: JAPA Is The Only Way Out | Hive Learners W108E3
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If I may offer a little perspective? I am Canadian and my son is 20yrs old making $30/hr (Canadian not USD) which equates to about #27,000 Naira per hour. Sounds pretty good, right?
Except even making that much money it took him over 6 months to find somewhere to live and now he is sharing a house with two other guys paying #700,000 Naira ($700) monthly and that's a cheap rent. He saves money by driving an inexpensive car (his job requires a vehicle). He's frugal in what he eats. He is smart with making purchases and at the end of the month he does have some money left over to save for the future.
most of his co-workers do not. It only takes a few frivilous purchases to go from money left over to no money left. Plenty of things to buy here and many places willing to finance you for it.
Should you JAPA? Despite what I just said I'm going to say YES, absolutely. But please do it right!
Now my wife is Filipina (from the Philippines) and OFW's (Overseas Foreign Workers) sending money back home to support family is the 3rd largest source of income for the nation. The Philippines national export is NURSES ..and caregivers. But some do it right and some do it wrong.
Some nurses come to Canada and work hard here to make a new life here. God bless them.
Other nurses come to Canada and work hard here to make money here....then return back to the Philippines with cash and investments ready. When they return home they help the local economies because they have steady income every month from investments and cash to buy local products. they drive the local economy and make things better (generally).
You say the rich have all the power in Nigeria. My humble advice: Work abroad and save well to become rich. Then return to Nigeria and use that power to make things better.
Just my quick thoughts and feel free to disagree of course :)
This is just what Nigerians do when they come over to Canada to earn some average pay and send their money over to Nigeria where they build an investment and then return home after working a while.
Like you pointed out, one has to be frugal in spending like your twenty year old son does. What you call food here can no way be compared to what is available here.
Do you know that an average Nigerian citizen cannot afford poultry products like chicken and even eggs because of inflation? They only have to squeeze themselves hard to buy chicken during festive seasons like Christmas and new year.
Seriously, if I have the opportunity to even be a fruit picker in Canada, I will definitely Japa because I could earn up to $17/hr.
Close on the fruit picker thing. Fruit pickers don't get paid minimum wage. I know because my parents in law pick fruit every summer :) They get paid 600 Naira for every 500g of blueberries they pick. In two to three months they earn maybe 9 Million Naira but they work everyday from dawn until dusk. Then they return to the Philippines where that money goes a lot further than it does in Canada :)
As for what my son eats... Well, he is not a good cook and his girlfriend says he is living on survival rations. One can of tuna, a couple cups of rice and some hot sauce. Meager by Canadian standards but from what I'm hearing not a bad meal by Nigerian ones.....or maybe I'm incorrect, never been to Nigeria.
Personally if I was in Nigeria I think I'd have go make fast friends with beans .. tasty, nutritious and not as expensive as chicken :)