Nigeria's Digital Economy: Opportunities and Challenges.

Nigeria’s Digital Economy Opportunities and Challenges:

On the 16th of December 2021, I administered a Google Form questionnaire with six(6) fundamental questions. The questions are as follows:

1. Are you a graduate?

2. Are you currently employed?

3. Does your potential career require digital skills?

4. What are the challenges you think you may likely encounter in getting a job today?

5. (Given a set of options) Which of the options do you think is likely going to be Nigeria’s Challenge in the digital economy?

6. Drop your email for potential opportunities.

The questionnaire has since been active, until recently when I decided it was time to write down the blog.

This is likely going to be the best blog I have ever written so far because I made you, the reading community, the center of the blog. Your input is significant. And in fact, your responses to the questionnaire, are in line with the facts out there.

By the end of this blog, Insha Allah, I must have provided scientific responses to each and every question above.

I will also like you to comment below, and let me know what you think as well.

Understand: Digital technologies are rapidly changing how humans behave in all aspects of society, starting from the digital economy, health care, finance, agriculture, education services, traveling, working life, personal and group communication, democracy, etc. Therefore, we must understand its applications in our daily lives.

The COVID-19 pandemic came along with banes and blessings. Among its banes is the global economic meltdown. Further throwing the lower class below the poverty line, and increasing the numbers of youths unemployment, global insecurity, etc. It has also exposed the frictions from the industrial economy that still remain with us to date.

The blessings can never be overemphasized. From our ability to work from home, i.e., remote working, from the increasing number of young people coming online, digital marketing, virtual meetings, alternative sources of income, and our ability to spend more time with our families. This is a warning, however, the blessings are never without a cost.

Let us Understand: every economic system has its principles of wealth creation. Once for instance, the Industrial Revolution brought about wealth creation called “industrialization”, so does the digital economy bring about a new form of wealth generation known as “digitization”.

Think of the digital economy this way. Think of it like a tree. A tree has roots beneath the soil, it has a body and so many branches. The root of the digital economy is the broadband penetration. The body is the cyberinfrastructure, and the branches are all aspects the internet ubiquitously extends to, from health, skills, finance, education, transport, you name it. 

The branch we seek to address in this blog is becoming employable and how to better improve our obsolete skills to the contemporary ones. And if we were firms, where and how do we employ skilled labor. Thus, this blog seeks to address the problems we are likely going to face from two perspectives:

1. From the perspective of the employer,

2. From the perspective of the employee.

Say you are a digital business, your number one problem is likely going to be access to skilled employees. 

Joysy John, Director of Education at UK Innovation Foundation Nesta, and Chris Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Talent Acquisition Platform looked at 41 million job adverts. What they found was amazing. The patterns they were able to identify were skills that will see an increase in demand and those that will see a decrease in demand in the forthcoming years. 

Some of the skills that are the basic digital skills that are associated with jobs that are going to see a decrease in demand require lots of digital skills. However, some jobs like teaching actually see an increase in demand and are seeing low digital skills that are required.

Based on Nesta's analysis, the most promising digital skills are things like animation, multimedia production, designing engineering, research, and quantitative analysis, these are some of the more advanced digital skills rather than the basics that can be automated away. 

The research shows that just having these technical skills or digital skills is not enough, we need creativity, collaborative problem-solving, and communication skills to complement the digital skills.

At this point, it is important to note that according to UNCTDA 2019, global employment in the ICT sector, which is the core pillar of the digital economy, increased from 34 million in 2010 to 39 million in 2015, with computer service accounting for the largest share (38 percent). We can see, of course, employers are still on the run looking for skilled employees. For employers looking for skilled employees, they should consult Digital Hubs for this. For instance, KadIct in Kaduna is linking up employers with employees. Other Hubs in Lagos are most likely not going to resist this temptation. There is also Malhub at Ilorin. In fact, Kaduna State increasingly becoming the Silicon Valley of Northern Nigeria. No state in Northern Nigeria matches Kaduna State in terms of contemporary skills acquisition centers, backed by Google, Microsoft, United Nations, and Amazon.

Coming back to our questions from the questionnaire, when respondents were asked if they were graduates or not? 50 percent responded yes, and the other half also 50 percent. 

Source, Author.

Secondly, when asked if respondents were currently employed? Only 20 percent of them said yes, while an overwhelming 80 percent said no.

Source, Author.

Thirdly, when respondents were asked if their potential career requires digital skills? All of them attested to this in the affirmative. Below is the pie chart of their testimony. 

Source, Author.

Fourthly, when respondents were asked what are the challenges they think they may likely encounter in getting a job today? It is an open-ended question. Below are their responses:

A. Having access to potential employers.

B. Challenge in communication skills.

C. Lack of crisis management skills.

D. Scarcity of vacancy.

E. High rate of unemployment.

F. Job opportunities are not on merit.

G. Don’t like commands or given orders.

H. Not applicable.

I. Required qualifications.

J. Lack of entrepreneurship courses in our institutions that will enable students/graduates to be independent.

Fifthly, when respondents were given a set of options, and asked which of the options they think is likely going to be Nigeria’s Challenge in digital economy? 20 percent said access to skilled employees. 40 percent clamored for cyber-security. 10 percent said data privacy breaches and 30 percent emphasized obsolete academic curricula. Below is a pictorial representation.

   

Source, Author.

So what lessons do we learn from this survey? Let us start our analysis with the last question, “Which of the options do you think is likely going to be Nigeria’s Challenge in the digital economy?” While all the options mentioned above staged a serious challenge to Nigeria’s digital economy, the challenge of cyber security can never be overemphasized.

According to CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Bank customers lose 42.7 billion to social engineering in the last four months of 2021. Data from the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) demonstrated that social engineering remains the best deception trick fraudsters deploy successfully to lure their victims.

Another report by YallAfrica 2021, Nigeria has lost N5.5 Trillion to cybercrime in the last decade.

Nigeria is not alone in the mud. The global economic cost of cybercrime is estimated to be around $600b in 2017. Such attacks have micro-effects on citizens (victims), SMEs, and even large organizations.

Seeing how thriving the industry has been without effect law and policing, it has attracted unemployed youths known as “Yahoo Boys” in Nigeria. In fact,  cybercrime is a fast-growing remote crime; and this has continued intensely with the everyday engagement of numerous young person (s) who are electrically infused with the get-rich-quick syndrome.

All hands must be on deck to bring about an inclusive and lasting solution to this problem. Furthermore, there is a growing demand for cyber security experts. And the pay is very handsome. Nigeria as a country must make courses related to cyber security as ubiquitous as possible.

During my undergraduate project, titled “The Roles of Digital Economy On Quality of Life in Nigeria”, I was overwhelmed when I discovered people now understand the need to protect themselves online.

For instance, I once asked, a group of 54 people if they had the opportunity to learn data science, graphics design, and cyber security, which one would they choose? The majority choose the latter. 

Source, The Roles of Digital Economy on Quality of Life, (Yusuf Nasir Ahmad 2020).

Data Privacy Breach: With the evolution of mobile app money lenders who loan our money to lenders without collateral, whenever these lenders default, these firms have resorted to breaching customers' data to send deforming messages to customers' contacts. Well, this is a clear breach of data privacy. NITDA and other institutions involved have taken keen measures to address this issue. However, data such as our digital footprints are also monetized without our consent. Google sells them out to firms to train machine learning models and artificial intelligence algorithms to use targeted ads in return for ad revenue through click-through rate.

We must take responsibility for our data online. Terms and conditions are not always comprehensive to read and understand, but that is where the problems lie. We don’t read terms and conditions. And even if we do, the function-ability of the app is held hostage to us agreeing to the terms and conditions. NITDA also needs to design a framework to probe this scheme.

 

We can see about 40.7 percent responded to cyber security as their best option. 

Secondly, the responses we got from the respondents when they were asked what are the challenges they think they may likely encounter in getting a job today? These challenges exist. Until we address them, the desired output may not be achieved.

 

Secondly, Problems such as having access to potential employers, challenges in communication skills, lack of crisis management skills, scarcity of vacancy, high rate of unemployment, job opportunities not on merit, not being commanded or given orders, required qualifications, and lack of entrepreneurship courses in our institutions that will enable students/graduates to be independent can all be addressed with the right approach.

Having Access to Potential Employers: you must know what skills you possess, and where you need to apply them, target any firm you feel you can work with, and watch them closely. Whenever they are recruiting, whether invited or uninvited, pay them a surprise visit. Make sure you have done some research about them. I know of a lady who landed her dream job when she paid the Airline Firm she desired to work with a visit on the day of the recruitment exercise. Even though she was not invited, she was able to prove her worth. And guess what? She is now working with them happily.

 

Communications Skills Challenge: Communication skills are nothing but simply the ability to communicate effectively. To communicate effectively, one needs to first listen attentively. Don’t interrupt the speaker. Develop the ability to mirror back his words to him. Use languages that are simple and easy to understand. Demonstrate and use relevant examples. Communication skills are beyond verbal communication. You must look out for nonverbal cues. Emotions. For instance, you don’t invite a friend who recently lost his dad or brother to your birthday party.

Finally, summarize what you have told them and remind them again. Make your communication have a happy ending as possible. You can refer to books such as “Effective Public Speaking”, by Dale Carnegie. “How to Talk to Anyone”, by Leil Lowndes. These two books, I’m sure will have a tremendous positive impact on you if carefully studied.

 

Crisis Management Skills: Crisis management is simply the ability to creatively improvise whenever we are faced with an obstacle or inglorious predicament out of sheer habit. In crisis, we learn. We must develop the ability to embrace diversity of thoughts, creative thinking capacity, and think out of the box whenever we are in crisis. Sometimes, all that is required of us is to embrace all the peaceful mind we can muster.

For skills in crisis management, I strongly recommend “The Obstacle is The Way”, by Ryan Holiday.

 

Birds of the Same Feather: To me, Scarcity of Vacancy, High Unemployment Rate, and Nepotism are all birds of the same feather. Rather than complain, we must learn to get up and think. Not only think, but take responsibility. We must first of all look for motivation, passion, and enthusiasm. We must change the perspective. What if we can actually start something very small, like for instance writing a blog, poem, digital marketing, online session, tutorial, freelancing, or anything? We must cultivate the art of saving for our long-term goals. Yes, you are unemployed, but that should not justify your idleness. The internet is now the new market square. We can sell ourselves online. 

Don’t Like Command or Taken Orders: Well, I’d better tell you, you are a rebel. You have the mindset of an entrepreneur. However, most entrepreneurs go through apprenticeship in life. You also need mentors, either books or human angels who will eventually guide you in life. If keep this ego and your narcissism, you are most likely going to end up in a deadlock, dead end, or even a stalemate. 

Albert Einstein rightly said knowledge equals 1/ego. The lesser the ego, the greater the knowledge, and vice versa. I strongly recommend “The Laws of Human Nature” by Robert Greene for you.

Paradigm Shift: Required qualifications and lack of entrepreneurship courses in our institutions that will enable students/graduates to be independent can all be addressed with the right approach calls for a paradigm shift. This alternation must happen both at micro and macro levels.

At micro levels, we as individuals must learn contemporary new skills as the necessary ticket we will have to pay to make income from the new economy. We must spend less time on social media, and entertainment centers.

At a macro level, we need to rethink our academic curriculum. We must integrate contemporary courses into the system. For economics students, for instance, data science is now essential. Learning Python for data analysis or machine learning will not be overemphasized. 

Thirdly, It is indeed good news that all respondents now acknowledge that they need digital skills in order to remain relevant in the labor market today. I truly hope they understand that knowing is just the first step. You must look out for the skills you want to master and start your apprenticeship now.

Fourthly, the 20/80 percent response is a testimony of youth unemployment in the land. We must replace skills and competency of over certificate if we truly desire to remain within potential output. Skills, zeal, passion, ability, and enthusiasm are the new certificates employees must vigilantly watch out for. 

Lastly, we have as many graduates as much as we have undergraduates in school. The flow is almost constant. Just like the flow of money supply. The question should not be about quantity, but quality. Just like too much money in circulation creates serious and unhealthy inflation, too many graduates in circulation without jobs, create serious socioeconomic catastrophes: Kidnapping, cybercrime, bandits, drugs alcoholism, etc. It will not be a bad idea if institutions create mandatory internship programs to enable students to have real-world experience. Send them to Hubs to learn contemporary skills before graduation, they should all learn to program, and it assists tremendously in problem-solving.

By sharing this blog, you will be part of the community that is advocating for solutions to Nigeria’s unemployment and digital nonchalant attitude. Please be kind enough to put down your comments below let me know your perception on this blog as well. Thank you very much for reading!!!