Nigeria’s employment story is far more diverse than a single national jobs ranking suggests.
A nationwide survey by SBM Intelligence has found that Nigerians in the country’s six geopolitical zones have markedly different views about the sectors that are most urgently needed to create jobs and economic opportunities in their communities.
The findings are contained in SBM Intelligence’s August 2026 report, “Six Zones, One Crisis: What Nigerians say about jobs, skills and the risk of leaving.” The report draws on a survey of 1,180 respondents across 21 cities covering all six geopolitical zones.
Technology emerged as the most preferred sector nationally, accounting for 14.4% of responses. Agriculture followed with 13.2%, healthcare with 12.7%, manufacturing with 11.0% and trade with 10.9%.
In the Northwest, agriculture dominates the employment conversation. It was identified by 22.6% of respondents as the sector most urgently needed, significantly ahead of healthcare at 14.8% and technology at 14.4%.
The Northeast also placed agriculture at the top, although the gap between sectors was considerably smaller. Agriculture received 14.2%, followed by trade at 10.2% and healthcare at 10.1%. The Northeast was the only zone where no single sector established a decisive lead.
The South-South presented a different set of priorities, with manufacturing taking first place at 15.7%. Technology followed closely at 15.0%, while trade accounted for 12.0%. The result highlights the continued demand for industrial employment in a region that remains central to Nigeria’s oil economy.
Healthcare was the leading priority in the Southeast, where 17.8% of respondents selected it. Technology followed at 13.3%, while manufacturing stood at 13.0%.
The Southwest leaned most strongly towards technology, which recorded 16.6%. Healthcare came next at 15.4%, followed by education at 15.1%. The pattern reflects the region’s concentration of digital businesses, startups and service-sector activities.
In the Northcentral, technology again led, attracting 18.1% of responses. Trade followed at 15.0%, while healthcare recorded 9.7%. SBM Intelligence, however, cautioned that the Northcentral sample was heavily concentrated in Abuja and should therefore not be considered representative of the entire region.
The regional differences are closely tied to the economic realities of each part of Nigeria.
The northern zones remain major food-producing areas, supplying a substantial share of the staple foods consumed across the country. That economic role is reflected in agriculture’s strong showing in the Northwest and Northeast.
In the Southeast, the emphasis on manufacturing corresponds with the region’s long-established industrial and commercial clusters around Aba, Nnewi and Onitsha. These centres support production and trade in leather, textiles, plastics, automobile parts, footwear, bags and other manufactured goods, with products reaching markets across West Africa.
The survey also shows that identifying the sectors Nigerians want is only one part of the employment challenge. The obstacles preventing people from finding sustainable work vary considerably as well.
Nationwide, low pay was the leading barrier, cited by 19.2% of respondents. Lack of skills followed at 17.5%, while limited access to capital and credit accounted for 16.4%. Another 15.2% identified a lack of available jobs, while poor infrastructure was cited by 8.9%.
The Southeast recorded the strongest concern about low pay, with 24.8% of respondents identifying it as their biggest employment challenge. A further 20.9% pointed to an absolute shortage of jobs.
The findings suggest that the region’s problem is not simply whether people can find work, but whether the available opportunities provide adequate income. The report noted that many educated people have been pushed towards small-scale entrepreneurship because formal employment opportunities remain limited.
In the Northwest and Northeast, the bigger challenge is skills. Inadequate skills and vocational training were identified as the leading employment barrier by 26.8% of Northwest respondents and 22.9% of those in the Northeast. While insecurity remains a significant issue in the Northeast, it did not emerge as the region’s dominant employment constraint.
The Southwest faces another combination of challenges. Poor infrastructure was cited by 21.0% of respondents, while 20.0% identified limited access to capital. The figures point to the impact of power, transportation and financing constraints on the ability of businesses to grow and create more jobs.
Healthcare’s position among the country’s leading employment priorities also comes as the sector continues to offer some of Nigeria’s better-paying professional opportunities.
An earlier SBM Intelligence report examining the 15 highest-paying healthcare jobs in Nigeria found that surgeons earn between N11 million and N17.8 million annually. Cardiologists earn about N15.8 million, anesthesiologists around N12.3 million, medical doctors about N10.3 million and psychiatrists roughly N10.2 million per year.
Taken together, the findings reveal an employment landscape that cannot be fully understood through a single national strategy.
The skills needed to strengthen an agriculture-led economy are different from those required to expand an industrial cluster. A technology-focused region faces different infrastructure and financing needs from a community where trade or healthcare represents the strongest opportunity for employment.
For Nigeria, this regional diversity also represents an opportunity. Agriculture can generate employment beyond primary production through processing, logistics and value-added industries. Manufacturing can deepen existing industrial clusters. Technology can create new forms of work and connect Nigerian businesses to wider markets, while healthcare can simultaneously address service gaps and provide professional employment.
The survey ultimately points to a Nigeria with different labour-market realities operating within the same national economy. Understanding those differences could be crucial to developing skills, infrastructure, financing and investment strategies that respond to what Nigerians actually need in their respective regions.
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