Lagos — Nigeria is hiring US technology giants such as Oracle and Microsoft as the government invests more to save costs and fight corruption. An initiative led by California-based Oracle has enabled Nigerian authorities to remove 50,000 so-called ghost workers, or fake entries, from the payroll, according to a presidency statement June 29. This followed Oracle’s decision to open an office in Abuja, the capital, in May. Other companies interested in taking on more work in Nigeria include IBM and Sweden’s Ericsson, according to Yusuf Kazaure, MD of state-owned Galaxy Backbone, which provides technology services to the government. Galaxy Backbone’s budget has increased by 30% this year to 4-billion naira ($12.7m), Kazaure said in a phone interview last month. State funding for the company will probably increase at a similar annual rate for the foreseeable future, he said. Nigeria is investing 50% more on information and communications technology infrastructure this year, totaling abou...
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