Nigerians youths have been advised to embrace data preneurship,
according to a C-Level Executive with MTN Nigeria, BayoAdekanmbi, reports
ITRealms.
Speaking at the inaugural workshop in Lagos at the weekend,
Adekanmbi who doubles as the convener and moderator of the event, told participants that the initiative, a
professional-led approach is designed to train and mentor young Nigerians
through face-to-face, virtual online classes, project-based support and holiday
boot camps.
The ultimate intent, he said, is to raise a special breed of
entrepreneurs who will set up data science based businesses and attract foreign
exchange to the nation.
Mr. Adekanmbi who disclosed that the initiative is a
give-back project premised on what he has learnt across the world especially
during his recent one-year PhD research sabbatical in the UK, India and America, said, “India is already
tapping into the Data Science space and I believe Nigeria can become Africa’s
data science outsourcing destination with our brilliant undergraduates,
graduates and young analysts with degrees in Engineering/Sciences and other
numerate subjects”.
Data and data science, he said, will become the oil of the
21st century and Nigeria must join the league of countries that will be
positioned for comparative advantage in data sciences.
The workshop, ITRealms reports, assembled leading lights in
data science to mentor participants as panelists, including Ngozi Dozie of
OneFi Nigeria, Dr. Femi Oyenuga of Oracle, Seun Onigbinde of BudgIT and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Founder, Andela while a
US-based Nigerian leading data scientist and IBM Distinguished Engineer/Chief
Data Scientist, Dr. Uyi Stewart
inspired and motivated the audience with his presentation titled “Leveraging
Data Science to enable Nigeria Leapfrog”
The panel analyzing the growing importance of data science
submits that countries, organizations and individuals need to make smart and
sharper decisions, to do these “they need data and data scientists”.
According to them, data science is the potpourri
of information and insights intelligently brought together to add value to
human life. This can be done by studying pattern over time in a bid to build
intelligence.
However, to become proficient in data science, both soft and
technical skills are needed. These include natural curiousity, communication,
romance with data and attention to details. Attention to details is critical,
emphasized the Aboyeji (Andela) unfortunately, not many Nigerians are good at
this, he said, “the world is still a secret, you make money by identifying
those secrets and proffering solutions to solve the challenges”.
Delivering his keynote, Dr. Uyi who currently holds 10
patents in the US, said, “Nigeria is at the tipping point with two choices open
to her: investing in infrastructure or invest in data which is technology that
will bring about transformational change through killer applications”.
“Investing in infrastructure will only bring about
incremental change, this is where most of us are right now” said Dr. Uyi “If we
decided to invest in infrastructure we choose to compete with the Chinese, we
have to maintain the structure unfortunately, we do not have maintenance
culture. We can achieve progress through data not infrastructure”, he
submitted.
The IBM Chief Scientist, further said, “Data is the new basis
of comparative advantage”, stressing that globally the world is surrounded by a sea of data
with 2.5 Gigabytes of data generated every day.
Considering the scenarios,“Nigeria’s immediate and strategic
opportunity is to leapfrog to the next wave of IT by leveraging technology and
cognitive system”, Dr. Uyi advised, adding that there should be a sense of
urgency for data and data science. To make progress, he said participants must
innovate on how they collect data, curate data, run analysis and the
customability of the insights generated.
Nigeria, he said, has a high potential for disruption
through business model and technological innovation, citing models where data
have been used as bedrock to bring about breakthrough developments in Agriculture
(Kenya), Health –Ebola (Sierra Leone) and education. Other uses of data include
e-government, smart city planning, security, tourism, to mention but a few.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
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Pix:---Chijioke Dozie, Director, OneFi, Bayo Adekanmbi, C-Level Executive, MTN Nigeria and Convener, Data Science Nigeria; Anthony Obi, GM, Business Intelligence, MTN; Dr. Uyi Stewart, Chief Scientist, IBM (USA), Guest Speaker and Ngozi Dozie, Founder, OneFi Nigeria at the innaugural workshop and unveiling of Data Science Nigeria at the Oriental Hotel on Saturday.
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