Technological Understanding In Nigeria
Have you ever seen a child pick up an iPad and within 24 hrs they are already doing things on the device that you could have sworn required an advanced degree in computer science? Children by nature, are curious and that curiosity drives understanding and familiarity. I remember when I was around 10 and my father put a computer in my room — it was an old PC with a Windows 95 OS that even by current standards at the time would be considered “outdated”. I spent countless hours on that thing and although half the time I was trying to magically unearth a playable video game, I became so familiar with the system I could do things like alter the software interface and operate it quite effortlessly without a mouse. Since then, I’ve never had any problems with figuring out how to manipulate interfaces from the simple to complex. This was something I took for granted…until I entered the Nigerian workforce.
You see, there is a shocking lack of technological understanding even at the highest level of corporate Nigeria and even as rudimentary as Microsoft Office, you find that many people struggle with understanding the interface. With my very limited computer skill by normal standards I became the go-to tech guy in the office, sure this inflated my ego but a bit of mindfulness confirmed that this was less to do with my own innate skill and more with the low standard that permeated the land.
In 2013 a Microsoft study found “more than 50% of today’s jobs require some degree of technology skills, and experts say that percentage will increase to 77% in the next decade.”
Software applications like Google’s Gmail, Asana and Slack are at this point mandatory to increase efficiency within the office, but from personal experience, I wouldn’t put it past a large chunk of Nigerians to flounder in their use.
Another statistic provided by Forbes states that “90% of jobs that existed 70 years ago have already been taken over by computers.”
I’ll go out on a limb here and say education without adequate technological exposure is no education at all in light of modern trends. We are already heading to a world were AI will do the same thing that was done over this 70 year period.
With this knowledge, I am amazed and baffled to find that a large number of government-funded primary and secondary schools have grossly inadequate IT equipment. Considering that a large bulk of the population make up the lower class, we are geared to see a society that will still remain largely technologically inept and I can confidently say that this isn’t going to do any favors for our economy. The big picture at this rate remains despondent.
In addressing this problem, technological understanding should be imbued in the educational sector as soon as children start learning during their formative years. It is very critical and the necessary seed that will grow into something much bigger.
There’s a massive paradigm shift where more and more of the economy is being fed by digital developments. IT developers are able to create digital utilities worth billions. Companies like Uber exemplify this shift, with word going around that Uber’s worth right now is more than the value of most of the world economies. The app itself took about 6 months to develop with a dedicated team, but that knowledge of development was a vehicle that manifested their idea of a cloud taxi service. A startup that requires very little capital and relies solely on the idea and the ability of one to express that idea in code.
Nigerian startups like Paystack have also seen relative success in software development. They recently secured 8 million USD in their Series A funding round. While the Uber example may seem a bit too far from home to draw parallels, companies like Paystack will emphasize more effectively the potential of IT locally. If these statistics were made available to a functioning educational sector they will be labeled sluggish for not immediately implementing coding classes into syllabuses of public institutions nationwide. It is a no brainer that Nigeria needs to progressively implement computer training programs that focus on coding at elementary/primary and secondary school level; this should not be a privilege afforded only to private institutions.
Getting the youth technologically skilled will be very beneficial to the country in light of the 4th industrial revolution and is the most prudent cause of action.
To put things bluntly nothing makes a Nigerian get up and explore an opportunity if you place hard cold evidence of the possibility to make serious money. Perhaps this may need to be explored and the knock-on effect will mean an awareness of technology that promotes the growth of this sector.
Chuba is a Legal and Corporate Executive at 3 Wise Pixels. Learn more about 3WP here.
