by Lekan Olanrewaju

A new study carried out by the Curzon Partnership Recruitment Consultants oil and gas expatriates working in Nigeria are the highest paid in the world.

The report revealed that average oil and gas executives in the country earn a total salary of about $454,400 a year, which includes a supplementary country premium worth 45% of base pay.

This is more than the salaries obtained in Britain, and other top oil producing countries such as Iraq and Libya, where the gross pay is ain the region of $354,900 per annum. According to Helen Di Mauro, a partner at the Curzon Partnership,  a reason for the large salaries is the number of projects that need international staff, local skills shortages and big cultural differences. She also said it was an incentive for expats, as life in Nigeria would be different for them. “Whilst Lagos is an exciting and well established place to work for expats, oil and gas companies recognise that the incentives have to be high,” she said “because life as an expat in Nigeria is so different from countries with broader industries and higher standards of living.”

The research also revealed that oil and gas workers from developed countries who work in Nigeria compare favorably above their contemporaries in other oil producing nations of Indonesia where companies pay a premium of 40 percent, Ghana 35 percent and 30 percent in Libya, Kurdistan or Egypt.

While people like the French president are telling citizens they need to cut down incentives for immigrants to enter their country, it turns out Nigeria provides amazing incentives for the world to come here! Aren’t you proud of your country?