The Program/Project Manager at Learn2Earn, Ademola Ogunlade, has raised an alarm over Nigeria’s deepening digital skills deficit, warning that despite being Africa’s largest economy, millions of young Nigerians remain unprepared for the global technology-driven future.
Ogunlade issued the warning on Tuesday in a statement shared on his social media handles, describing Nigeria as standing “at a defining crossroads” with a fast-growing but under-skilled youth population.
He declared that over 33 percent of Nigerian youths remain unemployed, many of them unemployable, while only eight percent have access to quality digital skills training, a trend he said threatens the nation’s economic survival.
“The world is not waiting for us,” he declared, lamenting that while Nigeria debates policy directions, other nations have built economic powerhouses by investing heavily in technology, talent, and innovation.
Citing China, India, and the United States as examples, Ogunlade noted how targeted investments in STEM education, digital infrastructure, and innovation ecosystems transformed their economies.
China’s digital economy, he said, grew from just two percent of GDP in 2000 to more than 40 percent by 2024, while India now earns over $250 billion annually from IT services alone.
He stressed that Nigeria has the youth population and creativity that the global tech industry desperately needs, but lacks systems that convert potential into productivity.
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“Our real crisis is not the absence of opportunities but the absence of systems that transform potential into productivity,” he said. “We consume what others create. That equation must change.”
Ogunlade, who described Nigeria’s situation as urgent, called for what he termed a “technology invasion,” a national shift from consuming foreign solutions to aggressively building homegrown innovations.
He highlighted sectors where indigenous tech solutions can transform outcomes if Nigeria invests in human capital, such as agriculture, education, healthcare, finance, and governance.
“None of these require billion-dollar foreign investments,” he noted. “They require Nigerian youth trained, inspired, and trusted to build solutions for Nigerian problems.”
Ogunlade positioned Learn2Earn, an emerging talent development platform, as one of the spearheads of Nigeria’s tech awakening.
He disclosed that the platform aims to train and deploy one million AI and software engineers into global jobs within the next 10 years, in what he described as Africa’s largest talent export project.
“We are building a Nigeria where a village girl in Kwara can code her way into global relevance,” Ogunlade said.
“Where a young man in Enugu can build the next fintech unicorn. This is already happening, but it must happen faster.”
Ogunlade called on policymakers, parents, institutions, and corporations to prioritise the country’s digital transformation, warning that Nigeria risks falling behind if it fails to act decisively.
