Nigerian adolescents were recently urged to maximize prospects available in the technology industry at the Victoria Island Worship Center, VIWC, of the Assemblies of God Church's youth development program.
Different facilitators at the Men's Fellowship of the Church's session emphasized that Nigeria still has a shortage of financial technologies, or Fintechs.
Mr. Steven Agubuche, one of the IT specialists, said in his presentation that a recent survey predicted that more than five million IT jobs would be added by 2027, and he pushed the kids to embrace technology in order to fit in.
"Software developers are predicted to grow by 22%, information security analysts will grow by 33%, Web developers will grow by 13%, and data scientists will grow by 31.4 percent," he says.
He urged the students to do a skill assessment, study up on high-demand talents, write down skills they want to master, and obtain the necessary resources, among other things, in order to stay on track.
He expressed regret about the lack of fintechs, saying: "The United States, with a population of 330 million people, has over 8,775 fintechs, while the United Kingdom, with a population of 68 million people, has over 2,500 fintechs."
Africa with a population of 1.2 billion people, has just 573 fintechs, while Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million people, has only roughly 144 fintechs.
Engr. Chima Nwuta, the church's Youth Pastor who also works for MTN Nigeria, urged the youths to improve their digital skills regardless of their educational background.
He stated that in today's changing environment, strong technical abilities in IT are necessary, and that by proactively and regularly improving one's IT skills, one's personal and professional life will improve.
In a presentation on "Remote Work," another IT expert, Mr. Shalom Ukpai, noted that with the right IT abilities, Nigerians may work from anywhere and earn good salaries.