As Nigeria Raises Army of Cyber Warriors By Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim

Yesterday, I met online with the participants of the Techy Train August Summer Bootcamp who are being empowered with some relevant Cyber Skills.

These about 150 individuals have been in this intensive process since August 1 and will be rounding up on Tuesday 31st August, 2021.

I loved to hear the excitement in their voices and their testimonies of transformation and life shift during the course of the bootcamp.

Through the Gbenga Hashim Foundation, we have so far provided sponsorship to empower 205 young Nigerians with relevant digital skills since June 2021 and we are committed to empowering 1000 before September 2023 through The Techy Train Incubator led by Ms. Excellence Anurika Joshua by the Grace of God.

Nigeria is a rising Cyber Power having emerged the 6th largest user of the Internet world wide: empowering her creative youth who already have an advantage of understanding written and spoken English (having over 1.3 billion speakers globally) with relevant digital skills would make them globally competitive and highly profitable.

I believe that providing mass training in relevant digital skills is the entry point for Nigeria to benefit from the 540 billion United States Dollars global outsourcing market notwithstanding other areas of the Cyber market which is much larger.

With the current 54% rate of youth unemployment, this market will create millions of jobs for those who are empowered and position them for global relevance thereby reducing the unemployment rate and absolute dependence on the Government.

With a modest investment in cyber security and upgrading infrastructure, Nigeria will be a trusted market in a short while; cutting a reasonable share of the market with India and Brazil.

It was an interesting encounter listening to highly motivated young people determined to take Nigeria to a future beyond oil.