When I was job-hunting, I was determined to get a remote role. I wanted flexibility, better work-life balance, and the chance to avoid Lagos traffic, as that alone felt like a promotion. But after applying for months, nothing came through. I began to wonder whether I had any employable skills. “Why won’t anyone hire me?!” I wondered. Six months later, I finally got an offer. Six months.
Another time I was job-hunting, I decided to widen my search and apply for any role, including on-site jobs. Two weeks later, I got an offer, it seemed effortless. That experience opened my eyes. It wasn’t that I wasn’t qualified, no, it was that remote and hybrid opportunities in Nigeria are simply much harder to find. But why? There are many reasons for this, and we’d discuss six of the most common ones.
Lack of trust in employees’ ability to work unsupervised
This is the biggest barrier, and it’s one many Nigerians know too well. Most employers genuinely believe that if they cannot physically see workers, productivity will drop. They assume the workers will get distracted, avoid work, or “relax too much” at home. And while a few cases may exist, the assumption is still harmful and wrong.
Because of this mindset, companies insist on dragging workers into the office every day, even when the job doesn’t require physical presence. What happens as a result? Workers spend hours in traffic, arrive tired, and start the day already mentally drained. Mental sharpness is needed in several roles, especially creative roles like graphic design, writing, video editing, and so on.
So, instead of increasing productivity through supervision, many companies actually reduce it by forcing physical presence. However, the trust issue remains, and it’s a major reason remote roles stay scarce.
Traditional beliefs that remote work is not ‘real work’
Someone once told me to “get a real job” while I was working remotely for a startup. In Nigeria, work has always been associated with a location: a physical building, a receptionist desk, a gate, and an office chair. If you are not leaving home every morning, many people assume you are jobless or unserious.
Tell someone you work from home, and the response is often: “Okay, but what do you really do?”
This belief is deeply cultural. Older generations especially struggle to accept the idea that someone can be productive without “going out.” Employers internalize this mindset too. Many simply cannot imagine paying a salary to someone they don’t physically see.
This tradition makes remote opportunities feel suspicious or unserious, so companies hold on tightly to the old system, even when the world has moved forward.
Outdated management styles and the rise of micromanagers
A conversation about Nigerian workplaces is incomplete without mentioning micromanagement. Many managers want to see every step, every process, and sometimes even every minute their employees spend on a task.
Remote work makes this difficult — or at least it used to. In reality, modern tools make micromanaging possible from anywhere, but many Nigerian employers don’t know this or refuse to adapt.
As a result, they insist on on-site work because being physically present gives them a sense of control. The fear of not being able to “monitor” staff becomes a barrier preventing companies from embracing hybrid or remote structures.
Companies want physical offices for branding and marketing
For many Nigerian businesses, having an office space is a status symbol. It signals structure, legitimacy, and success. In industries like banking, real estate, PR, consultancy, and media, a visible location serves as marketing.
However, once a company has a physical office, they believe it must be used.
So they prefer workers to show up, even when remote work would save costs and boost productivity. They fear clients won’t take them seriously if their office looks empty, so employees are required to fill that space, not because the work demands it, but because perception does.
Global competition limits the availability of remote roles
The moment a job is remote-friendly, it becomes accessible to the world. Applicants in Lagos are no longer just competing with applicants in Sokoto and Kano, they’re now competing candidates from Kenya, India, the US, Ghana, Eastern Europe, and everywhere in between.
And the truth is, employers often choose international candidates, sometimes because those candidates have more experience, other times because foreign talent feels more “reliable.”
Even Nigerian companies hiring for remote roles sometimes prefer non-Nigerians, believing they will deliver better. This global competition reduces the chances for Nigerians and makes remote openings far harder to secure.
The persistent issue of electricity and infrastructure
This is the one challenge everyone understands. NEPA? Abi PHCN? Abi Ikeja Electric. Different names, same level of (non-)reliability.
Remote work depends heavily on stable power and reliable internet: two things many Nigerians struggle with daily. Working remotely means being responsible for your own electricity, data subscriptions, and equipment. There’s no network that’s good across Nigeria. MTN is excellent in some areas and horrible in others. The same goes for Airtel and Glo. 9mobile? The less said, the better.
The average Nigerian spends a painful amount of money powering their laptop and internet every week. Employers know this. And instead of helping employees adjust, they simply avoid remote structures altogether by forcing staff into offices powered by company generators.
Power issues alone kill many potential remote-job opportunities before they even start.
Conclusion
Remote and hybrid work remain difficult to find in Nigeria not because Nigerians can’t do remote work, but because the system isn’t built to support it. From lack of trust to traditional beliefs, outdated management, global competition, branding concerns, and infrastructure problems, these barriers keep the country stuck in old work models.
But as the world continues to evolve, Nigeria will eventually have to evolve with it. Young professionals deserve flexibility, better work-life balance, and access to global opportunities. The first step is understanding the challenges. The next step is working, individually and collectively, to overcome them.
While we’re at it, you can find remote job opportunities in Nigeria here.
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