Eyes are off US, Indians keen on taking up jobs in Africa

Vinod Kalley is warming up to the idea of starting his “second innings” in Africa. The 60-year-old, who is doing a six-month certificate course on trade between India and Africa, has already got several job offers from international companies in the rainbow nation.

Classmate Roopal Dev, an MBA graduate, says she has no qualms about moving there for better job opportunities. “I have friends in places like Durban. They have all said it is a nice place,” she reasons.

That big Indian businesses like TATA and Airtel are investing in African countries in a big way today is common knowledge. So are stories about businessmen from Gujarat and Punjab favouring the continent to conduct their trade. Now, as a consequence of its rapid economic development (or what the foreign media has enthusiastically dubbed ‘Africa Rising’ and ‘Aspiring Africa’), there has been a steady increase in the number of well-educated Indians from the salaried class moving for better jobs to parts of the continent which, until recently, were thought to be bogged down by political instability, security risks, poverty and underdevelopment.

Acquiring the skills
Realising the need to equip Indians going to African countries for work, Aparajita Biswas, professor at Centre for African Studies, University of Mumbai, introduced a self-financing, six-month course on international trade between India and Africa in February this year. “Indians from the working class are going to African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan and Zambia,” she explains.

Premal A Lokhandwala, consul of Ghana, agrees. Although he refuses to divulge numbers, he says several Indians are leaving for African countries like Ghana.

“Ghana has economic and political stability, a safe working environment with monitory security and abundant national resources.”

The response to the international trade course, which is tailored to help students get jobs in the continent, has been so overwhelming that Biswas is thinking of increasing the number of seats from the current 25 to about 40 next year. “The demand for this course is more than that for a regular course,” she explains.
Students come from all walks of life — youngsters, businessmen and government employees. “Even African diplomats in Mumbai are interested in it,” says Biswas.

Safer bet than India
Vijaydeep Pawar, who works in the FMCG industry, returned last year from Mozambique to Pune to spend time with his newborn. He says life in east and west Africa is generally secure. “In Africa, we are able to save more, as in addition to our local salary, our expatriate salary is credited to our NRI account, which is non-taxable,” explains Pawar, who first reached Gambia in 2004 with a job that he got through naukri.com.

R Krishnaswamy Rajagopal, the managing director of Zambia-based Professional Life Assurance Limited, explains that the change in Africa’s job scene has been dramatic. “There has been a continuous flow of Indians into Africa, especially east Africa,” he explains, pointing out that South Indians to the finance sector while the rest are up for jobs in sales and marketing. “Countries like Ghana and Nigeria are changing for the better. Zambia’s economy has a GDP growth of 7-8%.”

Anish Jacob, deputy manager of an insurance company in Tanzania, agrees. “At our Indian club, people tell me that they spot at least two to three new faces every month here,” he laughs.

Venkat Shiv Kumar, managing director of Positive Packaging Industry Limited, Nigeria, who has been in the country for 22 years now, argues that despite its unstable image, Nigeria is far safer than India. “Yes, there are the occasional robberies here and expatriates are vulnerable. But, if you open the papers in India, the headlines only talk about rapes, robberies and the murder of old couples.”

Author and journalist Anjan Sundaram, who spent more than one year in Congo covering the 2006 elections, explains that the working class in India has a greater appetite for taking risks and has, therefore, a keen interest in Africa.

“There is a lot of money to be made if one is willing to take a gamble,” he points out. “I met an Indian businessman who told me that he came to Congo to manage a factory that had been sold off by Unilever to Indian investors during Congo’s war because he was tired of fighting for 0.5% profit margins in Mumbai.”

Sundaram claims that the influx of professionals from both India and China, especially in the retail sector, is on the rise.

The war looms
Africa suffers from “over­simpli­fication”. “It’s either ‘aspiring’ or ‘hopeless’, ‘rising’ or ‘failing’. Vast areas of the continent are still mired in war,” cautions author Anjan Sundaram.