Tunbosun Ogundare reports on the step taken by Odu’a Investment Foundation, a non-profit making arm of Odu’a Group, towards preparing the young population in the South-West to acquire the necessary ICT skills and knowledge required to be relevant in the digital economy.
There is no gainsaying that digital education is now the in-thing globally. The possession of sound digital knowledge and skills has become imperative for anyone to be relevant and remain so in this 21st century economy.
That is the way to go for everyone anywhere across the globe.
Against this backdrop, the Odu’a Investment Foundation, which is a non-profit making arm of Odu’a Investment Company Limited, has taken a bold step. The step is to help show the right way and how the students and youths in the South-West region, among others, can best embrace and explore the new technologies to advance the progress and development of not only the region and its people, but also the country, at large.
The foundation made this known while officially unveiling to the public, on Tuesday, in Lagos, its Digital Education for Innovation and Economic Development (DEFINED) project.
The Foundation did not stop there. It also launched, same day, and under the DEFINED portfolio, Byte Busters Coding Clubs for secondary school students across all the 137 local government areas in the region. The idea of the club is to make the efforts more practical-oriented.
Odu’a Investment Company Limited, with many companies under its purview, is jointly owned by all the six South-West states – Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Lagos.
Delivering a keynote address at the launch, Professor Seun Kolade, expressly highlighted the manifesto of the project.
Kolade is an erudite scholar, researcher and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation at Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. His research activities cover the broad areas of digital transformation, trans-formative entrepreneurship and SME strategies, among others, in turbulent environments.
He spoke on “The DEFINED manifesto: Unlocking the future through digital upskilling of youths.”
In his speech, Prof Kolade expressed strong optimism and promise that the DEFINED project offers, particularly the children and youths now and in the future in the South-West geopolitical zone, and the country, at large.
According to him, it is the ability of people to access right knowledge and skills to access and harness information that can substantially expose them in this knowledge economy to opportunities to thrive in life and across professions.
He explained that the outbreak of COVID-19 had further brought to fore the relevance and indispensable role the new technologies being played in people’s life irrespective of their socio-economic line of engagements.
He said since the outbreak of the virus, the status of digital spaces had not only shifted from an amenity to necessity, but had also made it to become life-saving channels of information transfer and services, access, and critical tools for economic activities and social interaction.
Speaking further, the don said, “The intersection of cyber, physical and biological technologies has spawned disruptive innovations, and precipitated opportunities and challenges that are now manifesting in different forms from one country to another.
“So, as digital technologies become ubiquitous and society increasingly rely on them to access information and essential services, connect with others, learn, and work, stakeholders are grappling with urgent need to ensure that households and communities including in remote areas have equal access to digital infrastructures, equipment and devices, and also have sufficient skills to use them.”
Making reference to statistics by the World Economic Forum to buttress his thought, Professor Kolade said the projection was that by 2022, up to 75 million jobs would be displaced by digital transformation, and at least 54 per cent of employees would require up-skilling, while Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and other forms of ‘smart automation’ are poised to contribute up to 14 per cent of global GDP by 2030.
This, he pointed out, is an equivalent of around $15 trillion at today’s values, the illustration that re-echoes the importance of digital technology to people’s daily activities.
Prof Kolade, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, also quoted the latest edition of the Future of Jobs Report, saying it was estimated that 83 million jobs would be lost while 69 million new ones would be created, particularly in the next five years as a result of digital disruption of the world of work, globally.
Similarly, six in 10 workers, globally, quoting the same report, require digital up-skilling, but only half of them have access to training opportunities, while more than two billion workers in the informal sector with 70 per cent of them in low income economies will require protection from becoming outdated.
Even at that, he pointed out, that, organisations operating in sub-Saharan African countries are projected to experience the highest levels of growth, at 65 per cent.
He said this invariably means that the future would be shaped by countries that are prepared and ready to seize the opportunities by equipping its people with right digital skills, knowledge and tools.
He said new tech is evolving each day and that was why it is a right and timely idea taken, for example, by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, under its new minister, Dr Bosun Tijani, to now exploring Industry 4.0 technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to drive the economy.
He also commended the Odu’a Investment Foundation advisory council’s team led by Ambassador Dr Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu, for coming up at this time, with the DEFINED project and the Byte Busters Clubs with the students and youths in the South-West region, in focus.
He noted that the initiative is indeed, a great one that can help revolutionalise digital education in the region and Nigeria, by extension.
According to him, African countries including Nigeria can no longer afford to remain latecomers or dumping grounds for antiquated technologies that have been cast aside by the developed countries in pursuit of new frontiers.
He declared that Nigeria, for example, is actually in a prime position to drive this agenda on behalf of Africa’s continent as it has the most populous young population, a vast army of unemployed, under-employed, under-educated and under-skilled youths.
He said the time to do so is now and must be an all-inclusive involvements of all categories of people including the youth and the disadvantaged persons to enable them to access and use ICTs and fully participate and enjoy the benefits and opportunities inherent in the new tech age just like every other person in the developed world.
According to him, most youths including in the urban cities in Nigeria do not have digital knowledge and skills let alone have access to opportunities offered by the digital space in this 21st century.
Most of the youth, he noted, are excluded on account of limited and inequitable infrastructure, lack of computer and internet facilities that can aid their learning and other opportunities .
“Even some among those, who have devices, like android phones and so forth, only use them on activities that give less value for money,” he added.
“So, digital access, as well as competencies are required, especially for both students and youths because millions of them don’t have the basic competencies such as Microsoft Office applications while only few have coding and programming skills and fewer are familiar with cutting-edge digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchains and Web3.0.”
“That is why the move by Odu’a Investment Foundation, through the DEFINED project, is highly commendable,” he declared.
Prof Kolade said the project would greatly help in up-skilling the proficiency of students and youths in the South-West in digital revolution.
He said that was why the project is designed in line with the national curriculum across subjects from primary to secondary schools and its activities to be carried out in collaboration with relevant state agencies, corporate organisations, groups and individuals.
Similarly, he pointed out, that apart from equipping the students and youths in the region with requisite knowledge and competencies from their early ages, coding clubs in schools would likewise serve as platforms to integrate their curricular with extra-curricular activities.
He mentioned that there would also be a yearly coding competition among students from local, to state and then to regional level, while innovation hubs would be established for school leavers and graduates alike in each of the states and in partnership with relevant state government agencies.
He noted that there are many under-utilised public facilities across the six states that can be useful for the hub and also service school pupils on coding clubs, and the unemployed and underemployed youths, especially, who are recently left schools.
He said it is imperative that the school children and young adults are well prepared to become fit-for-purpose learners capable to compete favourably with their peers globally.
Prof Kolade emphasised that with strong support of relevant stakeholders in public and private sectors, digital education would substantially help in addressing the multifaceted challenges such as crimes and criminality, food insecurity, unemployment, ‘Japa’ Syndrome and so forth that the region and the country at large, are currently grappling with.
According to him, South-West Nigeria needs not wait for the Federal Government to build digital infrastructure and develop competencies for children in the region, rather show the way as a pacesetter, thus, the need for every state in the region to take the initiative very seriously.
Interestingly, some secondary school students at the launch demonstrated their readiness for digital knowledge and skills as well as exploration of the opportunities offer by new tech to prepare them for the world of work not only in future, but even now.
Some of them made presentation of their coding projects ranging from online payment, and group Whatsaap app, and so forth.
Among the schools in attendance are Ladigbolu Grammar School, Oyo; International School, Lagos; Heritage School, Ogun State; Ipaja Junior College, Lagos; Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta, Liberty College, Lagos; Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo; Oladipo Alayande School of Science, Ibadan; Wesley College of Science, Ibadan, among others.
The students would later prove that they were indeed Byte Busters when they put their coding skills on full display for the audience at the event.
They demonstrated with the banking and communal communication applications they ‘built’ that Nigeria is indeed blessed with talented and creative young people.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of Advisory Council of the Foundation, Ambassador Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu pointed out that the sole objective of the foundation is to birth a new dawn of progress and development in the South-West states and for the people of the region and the country, by extension.
She noted that a well-trained and properly kitted youth population would birth an economically viable society and bring about the safety desirable by all and would therefore necessary to equip them with the right education and skills that would make them relevant and competitive on the global stage.
She said the work is huge and required collective efforts of all including the six state governments and its relevant agencies, corporate bodies, groups and individuals of likeminds lend their supports in every area possible.
She said the South-West must continue to be a pacesetter in development for other regions in the country to emulate.
However, governors from five of the states –Seyi Makinde, Oyo; Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos; Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, Ondo and Mr Abiodun Oyebanji, Ekiti– who were represented at the launch, expressed delight over the vision of the foundation and pledged their supports and commitment towards its success.
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