Skills shortage weighs down ICTs contribution to economic growth

Following the dramatic rise in the adoption of Information Communications Technology (ICT) by individuals, businesses and government, Nigeria is facing an unprecedented shortage of skilled professionals required to support such massive infrastructure deployment.

Industry observers are of the view that the current skills gap could hinder the sector’s contribution to economic growth, considering efforts by government to diversify the economy from oil.

They attribute the skills shortage to poor training in universities and other higher institutions of learning, lack of exposure to high-tech equipment, outdated curriculum, low awareness of latest ICT trends, and the  slowness of the youth to pursue industry training and certifications. 

The ICT industry requires about 300, 000 skilled professionals over the next five years if the country intends to meet its lofty infrastructural development aspirations, according to the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (2013-2043).

Skills shortages are seen to be more acute in the field of software development and programming, computer security and systems network architects respectively- these are the  areas where companies are struggling to fill yawning gaps. There are also shortages, as pointed out by ICT watchers who spoke to Business Day, in skills around systems support operators, business analysts, web and mobile app developers.

“We are adopting technology and services at a very fast pace”, said Adebayo Sanni, country manager at Oracle Nigeria. “It is quite alarming because we are currently facing shortage of requisite skills to support these technological deployments over the last 10 years”,  Sanni  added in an interview.

Considering the prevalent economic conditions in the shape of falling oil prices and the attendant devaluation of the naira,  experts have already identified ICT as a veritable platform to aid the diversification of the Nigerian economy. “Technology is the bedrock of any thriving economy. But the lack of ICT skills is limiting our ability to diverisify the economy from oil”, said Sanni. According to the ministry of communications technology, the ICT sector now contributes 10.5 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which in monetary terms, is $50 billion, out of the total GDP of $509billion. With the right environment, better skills sets, the sector has the potential to do more.

Some local and foreign companies including Etisalat Nigeria, Oracle Corporation, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, have been playing critical roles in bridging the skills gap. United Arab Emirates (UAEs) Etisalat Nigeria, in 2013,  instituted a Masters in Telecommunications Engineering at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, to contribute to local manpower development. The idea behind developing a Masters in Telecommunications Engineering, according to Matthew Willsher, chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria, “is to provide Nigeria with a more sustainable option of developing the Telecoms industry, using home grown graduates from this programme”. This programme, he added was borne out of the need to equip engineering graduates with the capacity and expertise to advance the telecoms sector in a practical way, thereby contributing in shaping the industry which has been tagged as the backbone of the economy.

Last year, Oracle Corporation started an initiative to increase the skills capacity of IT practitioners in Nigeria, a move to address technology skills shortage. The four-pronged programme was however devised as a response to the rapid adoption of new technologies by governments and businesses in Africa, exacerbating the shortage of suitably skilled practitioners to use the systems to best advantage.

In spite of these efforts, the ICT skills gap in Nigeria is widening by the day, industry experts say. “The pace of innovation is unprecedented. The skills gap will exist if training and re-training are not periodic”, said Austin Okere, group chief excutive officer at CWG. According to Okere, “the gap will continue to widen if we don’t try to catch up with the innovation”. Market observers, who spoke with Business Day pointed out that another outcome of the shortage of skills is that ICTs overall contribution to the productivity of other critical sectors could be severly hampered.

They also pointed out that ICTs are facilitating cross- industry linkages, efficiency and productivity, which explains why the banking, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries are so heavily reliant on ICTs for growth. There is a growing appetite for ICT in the public sector. “With ICT, we have automated our books and this has helped boost our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)”, said Abdulahmed Mustapha, director general, Lagos State Financial Systems Management Bureau.

Speaking in an interview with Business Day, Mustapha pointed out that with the use of technology, Lagos State is positioned to deliver better government services to 17 million people. “We are able to track our employees. But importantly, without the requisite skill set to support our technological deployments, it is a waste”, he explained.