Coding holds key to future currency, say experts

With an estimated 11 million youths released into the nation’s labour market yearly in the next 10 years, it is important for Nigeria and Africa to prepare the future workforce to be able to compete globally.

This was the submission of experts, who gathered at Africa’s first private sector collaborative platform tagged, “The Workplan,” stressing that innovation holds the key to re-positioning the country.They said this was germane considering that it a time when it has been predicted that automation would power 85 per cent of customer service by 2020 and cut costs of businesses by as much as $8 billion by 2022.

At the event, which was organised to draw up a practical blueprint for developing the formal and informal skills necessary for job creation, economic growth and global competitiveness across sectors, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, who spoke through a recorded video, noted that coding held the key to currency of the future.

Adesina charged Africa youths to be future investors and inventors that would replace big applications like Whatsapp, Facebook and others.Google Nigeria Country Manager, Juliet Ehimuan, said Africa’s biggest challenge could not be resolved by deploying traditional methods, which is why the country must not fail in the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Stressing the need to invest extensively in other sectors, Ehimuan said with changes in business models, innovation culture would become inevitable.

“The future of work is actually about the future of business transformation. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have assisted farmers in Africa to solve problems like the Ebola in tomato issue,” she added.

Speaking, Founder, Rise Networks, Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, canvassed a drastic change in Nigeria curriculum as no one could solve today’s problem using dated methods.On the role of women in boosting change, Akerele-Ogunsiji said women have vigour, depth and strength that could be channeled to success.