Secondary school pupils may be in the forefront of Nigeria’s adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) Technology, which is beginning to gain ground with the establishment of an innovation centre in Lagos, reports KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE.
With the inauguration of the Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Centre at the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Yaba, Lagos Mainland, Nigeria may have begun breeding its own army of Elon Musks, the award-winning scientist-entrepreneur credited for innovations in transportation, space travel and energy.
The centre is the first in sub-Saharan Africa that provides students with a platform to innovate and find solutions to challenges using technology.
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the inter-connection of gadgets such that they communicate to solve problems. It is gaining influence in various areas of human endeavour and is already in common use in advanced countries – in the management of healthcare, precision agriculture, energy, building management, transportation and the like. IoT is the reason doors open when a person approaches; alarms ring when certain sensors are activated; a car can operate without a driver, and things can be remotely controlled.
The establishment of an IoT facility by the UNITeS CISCO Networking Academy in a secondary school attracted visits from two ministers within a week – the Minister of State for Education, Prof Anthony Anwukah, who inaugurated the centre Thursday last week, and the Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu, who toured the facility on Monday.
To the uninformed, the centre looks like any other Information Communication Technology (ICT) facility, equipped with computers, servers, internet connectivity, a projector, and other gadgets that would make it functional.
However, beyond those, it is equipped with the raspberry pi (single board computers useful for teaching basic computer science and robotics), the Arduino (single-board microcontrollers for creating digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control objects in the physical world), capacitors and jump cables and some other small multi-coloured wires with plastic and metallic heads placed in containers on each table.
Twenty-two IoT ambassadors and FSTC pupils aged between 11 and 17 have been enlisted to pioneer innovative solutions at the centre. They are expected to surpass the record of five pupils of the school (now alumni), who excelled in an international competition, the Netriders Competition, which tests students’ proficiency in Information Technology Essentials, a CISCO programme, last year. They competed with university undergraduates and emerged among the top 10 in Nigeria. They were also among the top 50 in sub-Saharan Africa – the best among them was in the eighth position. It was their performance as well as the school’s record of training up to 1,000 pupils in the IT certification programmes that fired up the interest in establishing an IoT Innovation centre in the school.
Principal of the school, Rev Chris Ugorji, who has seen how IoT Technology operates in Berlin, Germany, is excited about the potential of the centre in solving local problems in Nigeria.
“My team and I witnessed a lot of innovations in technology that we were entirely moved. There, we saw technology being used for numerous day-to-day activities, e.g. – controllingerosion, fighting poverty, climatic change, etc.
“This centre is going to take ICT to another level. It will be a training centre; people will leverage on it to veer into new things; it is going to be a solution arena for businesses,” he said in an interview with The Nation.
He urged the Federal Government to replicate the same facilities in other schools across the country.
Already, the pupils have started testing their skills, which they demonstrated at last Thursday’s launch. They showcased a remotely controlled fire alarm system as well as the automatic control of gadgets in a home.
Christiana Ekekezie, Head of the UNITeS CISCO Academy in FSTC, said her team of 22 ambassadors is revving to go. She said they would start by looking into solving local problems when the school resumes for the next academic session.
“We have a lot of projects in mind. We have plans to search around and identify problems in the school. We look forward to making FSTC a smart school. With such centre in the school, it should not be an analogue school. For instance, we will look into changing how students clock in when they come to school instead of manually signing an attendance register. Also, we want to help the school solve problem of identifying those students who have not paid school fees but attend classes with others who have paid,” she said.
Christiana is confident that her pupils can come up with innovations that will become common place in Nigeria and reverse the country’s status as a consumer of technology.
“These things are already in existence in European countries. How come we cannot have it in Nigeria? We need to embrace it; it is possible. If we believe it is, it will come to be. Nigeria is used to being a consumer of technology but with this, we will begin to create new things,” she said.
She also said the centre would be open to users outside the school but priority would be given to the pupils.
One of the IoT ambassadors, Samuel Gbangbola, is already dreaming of what he will innovate at the IoT centre.
The 14-year-old SS1 pupil who wants to be a programmer, said the centre would draw him closer to fulfilling his dream of making android apps accessible to many operating systems.
“With technology, you have access to a wealth of information. While textbook knowledge restricts you to a certain kind of information which may be limiting, with the internet, you learn so much at once,” he said.
Moses Imayi, Project Director of Skool Media, which partners UNITes CISCO Networking Academy to run ICT programmes in schools, said the IoT Centre is futuristic and would empower the pupils.
“The IoT is the future of technology. The centre will give the students a platform to express their ideas,” he said.
Commending the innovation, Prof Anwukah said it was in line with international best practices and Nigeria must not remain behind.
“For our country to run a healthy and responsive education system, we must get our direction from the rest of the world. We are in a virtually-driven era. Technology is key,” he said.
He urged the pupils and teachers to take advantage of the centre to improve their skills.
The Minister of Communication said FSTC was privileged to have such facility which even tertiary institutions in Nigeria did not have.
He underscored the importance of exposing young people to such practical training to address the problem of unemployment.
“Nigeria, with a population of 180 million people, most of who are youths, deserves not just theoretical education because there are simply no job places for theories and people who cannot use their hands to work.
“With a population of 180 million, the job places available for all governments, whether Federal or State or Local government, are not up to five million.
“If we have less than five million job places in governments, it means that the bulk is in the hands of the private sector.
“The private sector want to be productive for every kobo they are spending and so, they would want something much more than that and that means that they would need more of skilled personnel ,” he said.
On his part, the United Nations Secretary General, Mr Antonio Guterres, who spoke through the Director, UN Information Centre Nigeria, Mr Rolland Keyanja, said with young people aged 17-25 making up two of the 7.5 billion people on earth, technology and innovation was a core part of the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda for keeping them engaged.
“Your focus on technology and innovation is one of those key elements of the Agenda 2030 but we must first of all increase access to information and communication technology for all our citizens to enable them effectively engage in the contemporary economy,” he said.
He added that advancement in technology had transformed tele-medicine; aero space engineering and other areas of human endeavour with innovations that have changed the way people live and work.
