From Kayemo News
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has said that building digital and Artificial Intelligence skills into students in schools, would empower young Nigerians into the 21st century workplace.
It called for an accelerated digital learning in schools to prepare the students for a better career path that would make them employable in the future.
UNICEF noted that given the available data in population, according to World Bank, Nigeria is going to be the youngest population in Africa by 2030, with about 60% of citizens at under the age of 35.
The UNICEF Education Specialist, Babangida Aminu, spoke at a 2-day Media Dalogue to Support Advocacy for Accelerated Digital Learning for Nigerian Youths organized by UNICEF in partnership with the Oyo State Ministry of Information which took place in Lagos.
Aminu noted that in terms of people in education, employment or in training, it shows that about 15% of Nigerians are underemployed and cumulatively underemployment, adding that the unemployment rate is around 50%.
He attributed the unemployment and underemployment of a huge population of young Nigerians to lack of digital skills. “And that’s why the need for us collectively, including private sector, public sector, development partners and the media to come out and advocate for the building of digital skills as well as artificial intelligence.”
Buttressing why there is need for concerted efforts, Aminu said “when we look at the top three areas where jobs have been created, In the last two years, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data analytics are some of the areas where employment is being created.”
Allaying the fear that AI could replace people and take their jobs, the UNICEF expert said “it is not AI that is going to replace people. It is other people that know how to use AI that are going to replace people.
“So it means that if we don’t have skills on how to effectively and ethically use AI, that means we will be left behind. But it means that before we are replaced, we need to learn the skills on how to use AI so that we can compete locally and as well globally.”