Challenges of Working Remotely In Nigeria

The impact of the covid-19 pandemic forced companies/organizations to adopt a new way of working remotely, by enabling their employees to work from home. The prevalence of remote work varied greatly across occupations and industries. This also gave rise to more remote jobs where employees get to work from the comfort of their homes.

According to statistics, it was disclosed that around 18% of people work remotely full time. Aside from the fact that remote work offers flexibility to employees, working in Nigeria remotely is often faced with some challenges. A typical Nigerian who resides in the country knows that electric supply is nothing to write about.

The country is still ravaged by widespread power blackouts which affect businesses and also remote workers are not exempted. For a large percentage of people working remotely in Nigeria, one major drawback has been the poor supply of electricity across the nation. No doubt this poor electricity supply has slowed down the productivity of the workforce in Nigeria.

The poor supply of electricity has seen most remote workers spend a large part of their income on buying petroleum products to use to power their generators to carry out their work. While some others have opted for the use of solar.

Some of these remote workers who cannot afford any of the aforementioned have seen themselves miss out on gigs, unable to maintain steady communication with their employers, miss out on deadlines and vital information. Due to the challenges of not keeping in touch with their employers and skipping work due to poor power supply, some of their employers have been forced to lay them off from work.

The lack of steady electricity supply in the majority of the cities in Nigeria is having an adverse effect on working remotely in the country. A steady source of power supply is a necessity and a major requirement to work from home in Nigeria. Unfortunately, not all remote workers can afford some of these equipment, as the cost of generators and solar is very expensive, which also requires high maintenance.

This is a challenge as not all remote workers are high earners, as some still earn meager pay which makes it difficult for them to keep up with work. Some organizations who are familiar with the challenges some of these remote workers face in the country, out of their benevolence, increase their pay and also offer allowances for these workers to cushion some expenses. Some organizations that are in the country give these workers the option to decide when to come to the office or work remotely.

Despite the challenges of working remotely in Nigeria, surprisingly, many individuals and employees will still prefer to work remotely even if it costs them a lot to ensure a steady power supply. Most employees who are employed by organizations in Nigeria are usually happy to work remotely because they won’t get caught up in traffic which is one major challenge in the country.

Those who stay in Lagos, Nigeria, will relate better because it is almost impossible to always be on the road in Lagos and not get caught up in traffic which can really be frustrating. In order to beat traffic, they have to wake up very early in the morning, which is a difficult lifestyle for some of them to keep up with. Not everyone is cut out for this hassle, which is the more reason why they will anyway opt to work remotely regardless of how much it will cost.