Author: The Nation

As 2023 gets on track, leaders of African countries have been called upon to take digital skills education more seriously so as to build the right kind of workforce to drive development of the continent.

Osita Oparaugo, founder/CEO of GetBundi, who made the call on Tuesday while interacting with journalists in Lagos. 

aid lack of digital skills workforce would hurt Africa’s economic development if not addressed immediately.

He asserted that acquiring digital skills is a must for anyone in the 21st century, especially in Africa.

To buttress this point, the GetBundi founder cited a study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, which found that 230 million jobs across Africa would require some level of digital skills by 2030, translating to a potential for 650 million training opportunities and an estimated $130 billion market. 

According to him, preliminary findings of another research on the Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Rwanda markets by IFC and the World Bank (through the Digital Development Program Trust Fund) showed that by 2030 some level of digital skills would be required for 50-55 percent of jobs in Kenya, 35-45 percent in Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Rwanda, and 20-25 percent in Mozambique.

He said only countries with STEM and digital skills-enabled citizenry can achieve meaningful development in the present world.

Read Also: GetBundi introduces pidgin courses to fast-track digital skills learning

Citing Singapore and China which are now flourishing economies as a result of the critical role scientific and technological advancements have played in them, Oparaugo said, “What China and Singapore have achieved in less than 50 years, Africa can also attain using STEM education and STI Skills acquisition, especially when one considers the abundance of human capital and the resilient nature of Africans, especially the youths.”

He said it was to promote digital skills learning across Africa that GetBundi, an educational technology platform designed to deliver high quality, engaging and accessible STEM courses and STI skills, was launched in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, in June 2022.

“Recently, in December 2022, we decided to run some of our GetBundi digital skills courses in Pidgin English to make them more accessible to more Africans given the conclusion of studies by the World Bank, UNESCO and others that using a language of instruction closest to the people matters a lot especially for learning foundational skills,” Oparaugo said.

He said the edtch platform has a vision to up-skill, through its STEM and digital skills centre, 10 million Africans by 2032 and beyond in order to create an inclusive sustainable development driven by technology.

A complete misunderstanding of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) 2021 bill has stirred controversy in the media and panic in the industry leading to a series of malicious media warfare.

The proposed bill, expected to repeal the Act of 2007, aims to establish a regulatory framework for the growth of Nigeria’s IT sector and digital economy. Nothing more. But the move to legally position NITDA to tap into a potential $12trillion global market share has come under baseless attacks by enemies of progress and selfish people convenient with purported $70billion market share.

To understand the draft, we must put the country’s interests before personal gain, else we would be oblivious to its benefits now and in the future. Let me clarify that the proposed bill is in favour of the tech space and not the ‘leaders of regulatory agencies’.

The proposed law in simple terms is to construct an efficient, unbiased, and independent regulatory regime in order to establish a regulatory framework for the growth of Nigeria’s information technology (IT) sector and the digital economy.

It is not just oriented on the promotion and execution of laws that encourage access to digital services, investments in the market, and native content. The adoption of cutting-edge technology, innovation, and preserving citizens’ rights and the nation’s interests are also included in the goals of the bill.

Read Also: More knocks for NITDA Bill of usurpation

With significant expansion of technological platforms used by businesses and governments to deliver services, the purview of ICT has increased over time. This, it is essential to maintain the NITDA Act current with the state of Nigeria’s digital economy given that it is over 16 years old. We cannot keep using the same Act of 2007 at this age and time.

Technology is all about looking far beyond the immediate future. In the tech space, it is believed that the present is the past. For a better and working digital country, the National Assembly should not be misled by the clamour of those who are more concerned with their own interests than with the digital economy.

The key objective of the bill is to monitor and licence IT and digital economy services in Nigeria. It includes positive provisions that aim to improve the digital economy, regulate the sector for the advancement of the country, as well as to bring it up to speed with the rest of the technologically advanced nations.

NITDA has continually worked to connect its goals with other stakeholders in government and businesses driven by innovation, consumers of innovation, tech startups, investors, organisations that fund academic research, civil society groups, and others. The agency is a regulatory body that cannot be altered.

For those suggesting NITDA’s role in the entire ICT sector be restricted, I take it to indicate that they are either out of touch with reality or are deliberate about truncating Nigeria’s economic progress. The ICT sector is moving at an accelerated pace and; therefore, the country must be well positioned legally to tap into its $12trillion share.

In other words, without a legal framework, it is easy to stop NITDA in its attempt to tap into this huge potential. This is what the opponents of the bill seem to be out to achieve. This is the crux of the matter and federal lawmakers must be wary.

As ICT evolves globally, yielding enormous benefits in terms of economic growth and development, best practices demand that the nation’s IT regulator evolve in equal measure via capacity and legal framework. Otherwise, the sector will be marred, ruining all the hard work devoted to bringing it to current status. Nigerians will be the victims.

I am not advocating that NITDA be granted authority to oversee institutions like the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) nor the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, for a broad policy to thrive, there is the need for direction. I believe the final result won’t be all that divisive if all stakeholders join hands to ensure the success of the amendment bill.

Fom Gyem, an author, and Network of Advocates for Digital Reporting (NADIR) member, writes from Abuja.