Kenya and Nigeria ahead African countries in closing the ICT gap

Since the realization of technology efficiency in different entities; governments, institutions, businesses or even individuals, embracing it has turned out a scramble With launch after launch to solve any problem that does not even need technology. A good example; Organizations in Africa are adopting new technologies at a rate which is outstripping the availability of appropriately qualified staff.

Today, IT holds the promise to promote social inclusion, combat corruption, expand the digital economy and enable stronger links between citizens and governments, businesses and customers, NGOs and the communities they serve

However, without moderation the roll outs end up being a choke in the society; it is more of outdoing each other than establishing solutions in concern of the society. The diversity has also been a tall order to catch up with for a common setting.

According to Oracle, the dramatic advancement of technology over the past five years has resulted in a gap in IT competencies and skills availability. In response, the Corporation has rolled out an initiative designed to enrich and increase the skills capacity of IT practitioners in Africa. The four-pronged program was devised in a quest to exacerbate the shortage of suitably skilled practitioners to use the systems to best advantage.

For technology to support such transformation, organizations must have ready access to people capable of setting up and maintaining these systems. This will consist of four elements; employee readiness, ecosystem readiness, workforce readiness and youth readiness, Oracle is reaching out to governments, the private sector and non-profit organizations to implement a long term skills strategy that will help fulfill demand for relevant IT skills.

Kenya among other states is already in line with the technology-logic project that has involved Equity Group Foundation in creating programs meant to address the community’s skills need and jointly drive successful initiatives tailored to the local needs.

In the emerging economic order, basic computer literacy means the ability not only to use software, but also to modify or create; in other words, to program. For individuals to compete internationally, they must also raise their ICT competencies to global standards and keep them intellectually curious, creative and motivated to critically think about their surroundings.

The Lagos state government is also a partaker of the same with the state pointing out its priority of Building a competitive pool of IT-skilled youth. According to Governor Babatunde Fashola(SAN, it takes multi-stakeholder support and long term collaboration with organizations such as Oracle who share the community’s deepest commitment to successfully achieve this goal of building skills and creating exciting job opportunities for the youth of Lagos.

 

Winfred Kuria854 Posts

Winfred Kuria is a self-constituted web content writer in charge of Tech News and Events Publicity at Kachwanya.com. She will communicate in the simplest way possible with an aim of changing the world one mind at a time.

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