The wave of layoffs that saw three giant global tech companies lay off a total of 15,820 staff in less than two weeks has heightened the concerns for Nigerian tech companies.
According to the startups’ layoffs tracking website, layoff.fyi, a total of 814 tech companies have laid off 128, 865 employees so far this year. Recall that Stripe, the American fintech giant had early this month announced 1,120 head cuts, representing 14 per cent of its workforce.
Twitter, which was newly acquired by Elon Musk also slashed its employees by almost half as it laid off 3,700. The biggest announcement, though not by percentage of the workforce, came recently from Meta which sacked 11,000, 13 per cent of its workforce.
For many employees working in the tech space in Nigeria, the issue of layoff is no longer a question of if, but when, and who is going to be affected.
According to an employee of Paystack, a leading fintech company in Nigeria, which was last year acquired by Stripe, the firm is not insulated from the global economy and many of the workers are worried.
Another tech worker who simply wanted to be identified as Oluwaseyi said Tech layoffs are already happening in Nigeria.
“Many companies are suffering from the bad economic situation in Nigeria; high inflation, volatile exchange rate, etc. I know it may happen to me or any of my colleagues also because things are not moving the way they should, the company is not making money as they used to and they also need to satisfy their investors.”
Co-founder of Tech4Dev, a non-profit organisation that is building entrepreneurs through digital skills, Oladiwura Oladepo, said layoffs are already happening in the Nigerian tech space, though not at a magnitude where it could be described as a tsunami.
