It is no secret that high unemployment rate has continued to pose a big threat to Nigeria’s huge population for many years. Because of this, university graduates in the country are increasingly shifting their focus to entrepreneurship as opposed to waiting to be employed by an establishment.
This quest for entrepreneurship has contributed largely to the growth of the Nigerian tech space, with a good number of the country’s tech startups receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.
Despite the Nigerian tech ecosystem being said to be an envy of its African rivals, startups in the country are continually facing talent shortage.
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THE WHISTLER spoke to Benjamin Dada, Nigeria country manager of Stitch, a South African fintech company, and Prosper Onah, a blockchain security researcher, they listed five of some of the most sought-after tech skills in the country to guide people looking to build a career in tech.
PROGRAMMING
According to Dada, the number one tech skill remains Programming. This is a given because before you can build any tech product, it has to be programmed.
“I would say Programming is one of the most sought-after tech skills. The reason why is many people do not consider non-technical skills like marketing or product marketing as tech skills but the truth is, in every startup, you need a marketer or a salesperson that can help you sell that product. So that perception is the reason why I would say programming is the most in-demand tech skill.
“Another reason it’s the first is before you build any tech product, like a mobile app or a web app or even programme hardware devices, like smartphones, you need a programmer to make it come to life. So that’s why programming is my pick for the most in-demand tech skill. It’s also the first thing people think of when they hear about tech skills or tech work,” he explained.
Dada, who is also the founder of Benjamindada.com, a tech publication, explained that he would group the next four skills into two. Skills needed to create a tech product and the skills needed to make money from the tech product.
QUALITY ASSURANCE & PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
“Going by that, the second one would be Quality Assurance, because when you build the tech product you need to make sure that it doesn’t disappoint your users. Third is Product Management, in some cases, the CEO also acts as the product manager, but it’s not always the best use of their time so you need someone that is trained as a product manager to work with the development team when bringing that product to life.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING
“Now for the fourth and fifth skills, they fall under the side of selling the tech product. Skill number 4 is business development. The staff responsible for this can either be called the technical account manager or a sales rep. The fifth and final skill is marketing. Now some may say sales and marketing are very complimentary but they differ in a way. Most times, sales involve business-to-business, like one-to-one transactions, however marketing is usually one-to-many. So, you need someone that can either do product marketing, content marketing, or growth marketing,” he explained.
TECH SKILLS IN NIGERIA VERSUS SKILLS ABROAD
Onah on his part, believes that the world of tech is something of an even playing field because all products created can be accessed over the internet regardless of where they were developed and the creators of these services need the same set of skills. As such, he explained that the most sought-after skills are largely the same in Nigeria’s tech space and the tech space abroad.
“The good thing about tech is that it operates like a level playing ground. because all of us build products that can be accessed over the internet, we require the same set of skills and capabilities to develop the right products that will be accessed through the internet. So I would say the skills that are in demand for tech in Nigeria are the same abroad,” he said.
The only major difference, he said, is that tech companies in Nigeria are still very young when compared to those abroad and as a result, they have staff for specific roles and tasks while young Nigerian companies have one person fulfilling two or three major roles to save costs and grow the business.
“However, what you might find is that many Nigerian tech companies are very young, or very early in their journeys so you could find them using one person to fulfill two roles but the ones abroad might be older so they can afford to have some specializations. This is because they are bigger and have the budget for this. So the tech skills are largely the same across the board, but the bigger you become regardless of where you are, you would need more specializations beyond the five mentioned above.
COMMON CHALLENGES IN NIGERIAN TECH SPACE
When asked what common challenges people face when they decide to venture into the Nigerian tech space, Dada replied that there are three major ones.
“I’d say there are three things. The first is gaining an understanding of what tech is about, the types of jobs that are available in tech, and how exactly people use tech. You know tech is like a buzzword now, but at the end of the day, the tangible things you can see about tech are the apps, like Telegram, WhatsApp, etc., or the phones, like iPhones and Samsungs. As such, the first thing to do is to get a good understanding of what tech is, so you can know where you’d fit.
“The problem with this is, that the Nigerian educational system has yet to catch up in teaching people about these fields, so many people still come out of University not knowing what tech is about. Some people are being taught computer science but they’re learning computer science that applied in 1980 when all those things don’t apply anymore,” he said.
He explained that the current educational system is putting Nigerian students at a disadvantage in the tech space.
“So that gap in the educational system is disenfranchising people from getting a good understanding of what tech is and what the prospects and career opportunities are,” he said.
The second challenge, according to him, is how to acquire the skills needed after gaining theoretical knowledge.
“The second thing is, being able to acquire those skills after learning about them. The thing is that there are so many jobs and career paths in tech, but to acquire the necessary skills, they need to go through a training program or a curriculum.
“Many schools that people attend for formal education don’t train Nigerians with these skills, not to talk of letting them know of the real-life opportunities in existence today, so that’s a challenge,” he said.
Dada added that thankfully, this problem is being solved through online classes and alternate platforms.
“But people are solving that challenge now through online courses, YouTube, and alternate educational platforms, and some companies are creating their own training programs for talents and students,” he said.
According to Dada, the third and final challenge is access to mentorship or guidance.
“It’s not enough for you to say ‘I want to become a programmer’ you need some level of access to someone who has worked as a programmer and can give you tips on how to grow your career, double your salary or improve the quality of your work. Mentoring is still a challenge in that regard.
“Somewhere you can get free mentorship is in a company. Imagine getting into a company as an intern and you have access to someone that is already in a position of seniority there. Those people would help you correct your work, as you grow they would give you more guidance and all that. Sadly most people don’t even have access to such jobs,” he said.
MAJOR CHANGES EXPERIENCED IN NIGERIAN TECH SPACE
With the various technological advancements experienced as well as the deeper penetration of internet connectivity in Nigeria in the last few years, the tech space has experienced several changes.
According to Onah, there have been three major changes in the tech ecosystem and they’ve all been largely positive.
“First, the infrastructure in the tech ecosystem has improved, we aren’t there yet, but we’ve improved. For instance, before now if you wanted to buy data on your phone it was very expensive, you could use up to N3,000 for 1GB, but now there are networks offering 1.5GB for N1,000. There’s also access to public WiFi in some places now, so that infrastructure is becoming more readily available.
“Even with gadgets now, you can buy second-hand phones or laptops that will work towards your development. The infrastructure is becoming more democratized, but it’s still not at the level we need it to be yet, if you think about it smartphone penetration is still about 30% and internet penetration is still about 30%, so there’s a long way to go.
The second major change is that there are real-life examples of tech success stories.
“What this does is, it helps to shape the minds of parents or students in school as to the future they can see for themselves. For the first time, we saw Nigerian tech startups acquired for real cash. I know people that made real money, dollars, from PayStack acquisitions.
“A second one, MainOne was acquired for 300 and something million dollars, and many of the employees there were beneficiaries. So those real-life examples of tech success stories are giving young Nigerians role models or models of what to look forward to.
“The third thing is the influx of more entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a lot more venture capitalists come into the space so last year, African startups raised like $5 billion. Like 20 years ago there was nothing like venture capitalists, if you wanted to raise money from the public you needed to go to a stock exchange and the Nigerian Stock Exchange is not doing very well at the moment.
He said the influx of Venture Capitalists has encouraged people to explore the entrepreneurship option, knowing that there is capital to fund the business.
“Now, we’re seeing a lot of VC money betting on Nigerian companies, fintech startups, all of that. So that is making people more willing to gamble and become founders because becoming a founder is a risk, the likelihood that you will succeed is only 10%. 9 out of 10 startups will fail.
“Therefore, the influx of capital is helping people leave their regular jobs and try out entrepreneurship knowing that they would still be paid a decent salary and they don’t have to work for free seeing as the VCs can afford some of their salaries and this is also, in turn, creating jobs for the youth,” he concluded.