In the face of growing unemployment and underemployment in the country, citizens, especially youths, are gladly welcoming available remote jobs with foreign companies. However, increasing access to the global labour market appears to be exposing many people to attendant exploitation, including low wages, payment barriers, unclear job boundaries, and limited workers’ protections, FAITH EKPA reports.

Remote jobs have created a new pathway for Nigerians to earn from international employers without leaving the country. Professionals and even non-professionals are constantly using platforms such as Upwork, LinkedIn, Handshake, We Work Remotely, DailyRemote, FlexJobs, Remote.co and Outlier to access opportunities beyond Nigeria’s traditional labour market.

The attraction is clear – with limited formal employment opportunities at home, working for foreign companies offers Nigerians the possibility of earning in foreign currencies, especially dollars, without having to travel abroad.

Jobberman reported in 2025 that 62 per cent of international companies were actively recruiting young Africans, either for full-time remote positions or through freelance platforms.

The country’s growing importance in the global digital labour market was further highlighted by the 2026 Global Outsourcing Talent Index, which ranked the country sixth globally as an offshore outsourcing talent destination.

However, increased access to foreign employers does not necessarily translate into better working conditions. For some Nigerian workers, the journey into the global remote economy begins with barriers that can leave them dependent on intermediaries.

Ifechukwu Ogah, a remote worker who gets gigs through Outlier, disclosed that he was unable to apply directly to the platform and had to rely on a friend who resides in the United States to open an account using the friend’s details while he does the work from Nigeria.

The original agreement was for the earnings to be shared equally, but despite doing the job, Ogah said his friend later changed the arrangement to a 70/30 split, leaving him with only 30 per cent of the income generated from his labour. The arrangement puts the person controlling access to the platform in a stronger bargaining position while the person doing the work has limited power to negotiate.

Yet, Ogah continued with the arrangement because, in his assessment, the alternative is worse. He said Nigerians with his level of expertise doing similar work locally earn less than 30 per cent of his earnings from the international job.

His experience exposes a difficult reality within the remote work economy – a worker can gain access to a global job and still have little control over the value of his labour.

For Ogah, the choice is between accepting an arrangement in which he receives only a fraction of the income generated from his work or returning to a local labour market where he believes his skills would earn even less.

The case also raises questions about the bargaining power of Nigerian workers in the global digital labour market. When unemployment, low local wages and barriers to international platforms exist at the same time, workers may accept highly unequal arrangements because even an exploitative foreign opportunity can appear better than the options available at home.

Available data point to a wider problem. MyJobMag’s 2026 remote work data indicate that less than 10 per cent of Nigerian remote workers earn above $350 monthly while 82 per cent would rather have structured employment in the country than freelance remotely.

The figures point to a contradiction at the heart of Nigeria’s remote work boom. While the country is increasingly supplying talent to international companies, many of the workers providing the labour remain financially vulnerable.

For workers who earn in foreign currency, payment itself can also reduce the value of their earnings.

Daniel Ekwo, a Nigerian digital worker and TikToker, said international payment systems remain a major challenge for remote workers. He noted that limitations with PayPal in Nigeria mean some workers rely on alternative platforms such as Payoneer to receive international payments. He also highlighted losses caused by exchange rate differences.

“Sometimes, there is almost a N100 difference in the exchange rate. When you calculate that across the amount you are earning, you realise that you are losing a substantial part of your income simply because of the payment system,” he said.

The implication is that earnings in dollars do not always translate into receiving the full value of the income in naira. Exchange rate differences, transaction charges and withdrawal costs can reduce what workers eventually take home.

Ekwo described another dimension of the problem as the invisibility of remote employment.

“Some people see you staying at home every day, and they start wondering what you are doing. They see you spending money, and they cannot understand where the money is coming from,” he said.

His experience reflects a wider social adjustment to a changing labour market. For many Nigerians, employment is traditionally associated with leaving home, reporting to an office and interacting with colleagues. Remote work removes those visible signs of employment.

However, the problems associated with remote jobs are not limited to issues raised by Ekwo. At 28, a Lagos-based Uyo Akpan opted for a virtual assistant role partly to avoid the daily stress and cost of commuting in the city. But what began as a work-from-home arrangement has increasingly required her to leave home to run errands for her employer.

“This is not what I applied for. I wanted to work from home, but it now seems that I don’t have a choice. I have even been sent to run errands in my boss’ village”, she laments.

Akpan said she has continued to apply for other jobs in the hope of finding a position that allows her to work remotely, as originally agreed.

Akpan’s experience highlights another vulnerability in remote employment. Where job descriptions and responsibilities are not clearly defined, workers can find themselves performing duties far beyond what they initially agreed to, without necessarily having the bargaining power to push back.

The same flexibility that attracts workers to remote employment can also make it difficult to separate working hours from personal time. Unlike conventional employment, where the workplace, working hours and reporting structure are usually defined, remote workers can find themselves responding to messages and completing assignments across different time zones.

This becomes particularly important when workers are engaged by companies outside Nigeria but remain subject to the country’s economic realities. A worker may be physically based in Nigeria while being managed by an organisation thousands of kilometres away, raising questions about contracts, benefits, working hours, dispute resolution, and access to social protection.

There is also the cost of maintaining the remote workplace. Nigerian remote workers are often responsible for providing computers, reliable Internet, electricity and backup power. While these are essential requirements for performing the job, the costs are frequently borne by the worker. Somehow, many believe that the shift of financial burden from the employer to the worker diminishes the real value of remote employment.

Beyond money, remote jobs come with social and psychological costs. Another remote worker, Farouk Isah, said the lack of regular interaction with colleagues and spending most of his time at home became increasingly isolating, emphasising that the experience eventually contributed to him falling into depression.

For international companies, Nigeria offers a large pool of educated and skilled workers at relatively competitive costs. For Nigerian workers, remote employment provides access to a global labour market that would otherwise be difficult to enter. Yet, the imbalance in bargaining power remains a concern.

A worker desperate for income may accept low pay, unclear responsibilities or unfavourable payment arrangements simply because the alternative is unemployment. This is where the unemployment crisis intersects with the remote work boom.

Remote work itself is not the problem. It can provide valuable opportunities, increase access to international markets and allow Nigerians to earn without migrating. The challenge, however, is ensuring that the expansion does not simply create a larger pool of inexpensive labour with limited bargaining power.

As the country becomes increasingly important to the global outsourcing and remote work economy, attention must shift from how many Nigerians can secure international jobs to the quality of those jobs. That means examining pay, payment systems, contracts, working hours, worker protection, infrastructure costs and well-being.

For the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, remote jobs emerged from the wider deployment of information technology and were largely not contemplated when Nigeria’s existing labour laws were enacted.

He added that foreign companies may offer such jobs to access cheaper labour, while a depreciating naira can make earnings appear attractive to Nigerian workers. He therefore called for legislation to ensure that remote workers are not exploited but receive fair value for their labour.

Also, a legal practitioner and public policy analyst, Usman Yakubu, said that Nigeria has no specific legislation regulating remote work, particularly for workers employed by foreign companies.

He noted that existing laws, including the Labour Act and Employee Compensation Act, were designed mainly for traditional workplaces and left gaps around remote work.

Yakubu added that employment contracts should, therefore, clearly define working hours, place of work, duties, monitoring arrangements and the responsibilities of both parties, noting that employers still have a duty of care towards remote workers, including their health and safety.

The Founder of E-Education Advantage Consulting in the United States, Dr Pauline Ann Baba, lamented that while remote jobs give Nigerians access to global opportunities, foreign currency earnings, and skills development, they also expose workers to significant vulnerabilities.

According to her, intense global competition can depress wages while unstable contracts, delayed payments, cross-border payment restrictions, foreign exchange challenges and the rising cost of work resources can further reduce workers’ earnings.

Baba added that many remote workers lack traditional labour protections, potentially leaving them vulnerable to accepting unfavourable terms in a bid to retain their jobs. She called for stronger frameworks to protect workers while supporting Nigeria’s digital economy.

Nigeria may be succeeding in exporting its talent without exporting its people, but unless the conditions under which that talent is sold improve, the country’s remote work boom risks becoming another labour market, where opportunity exists but workers remain on the weaker side of the bargain.