Technology
Demand for African Developers at an All-time High—Report
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A new report from Google has revealed that the demand for African developers reached a record high in 2021 against the backdrop of a global economic crisis and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the report titled Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021, it was found out that despite the challenges associated with the pandemic, the continent’s developer ecosystem is on the rise.
Google conducted the study across 16 Sub-Saharan African countries through fielded and analysed surveys of software developers as well as interviews with local experts.
With increased (+22%) use of the internet among small and medium businesses (SMBs) on the continent, the need for web development services also increased alongside higher demand for remote development work (38% of African developers work for at least one company based outside of the continent).
This is evidenced by the magnitude of growth in Nigeria’s professional developer population which added an estimated 5,000 new professional developers to its pool in 2021.
“While Africa’s tech innovation sector is making great strides, global tech companies, educators and governments can do more to ensure that the industry becomes a strategic economic pillar.
“At Google, we are intent on further igniting training and support for this community by bridging the existing developer skills gap and concentrating our efforts in upskilling female developers who face pointed challenges,” the Managing Director of Google in Africa, Nitin Gajria, stated.
Following a series of initiatives (including developer advocacy, startup acceleration, training programmes, and global technical mentorship) that the company has implemented over the last 10 years, Google aims to train 100,000 developers across the continent by 2022.
To date, the African continent is home to more than 150 active Google Developer Groups and 100 Developer Student Clubs in Africa. Combined, these groups reach over 200,000 community members in 40 of the 48 countries in the Sub-Saharan African region.
Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021 is the second in a series of studies on the state of the continent’s Internet economy.
The first, published in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), found that Africa’s Internet economy has the potential to reach 5.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, contributing nearly $180 billion to Africa’s economy. The projected potential contribution could reach $712 billion by 2050.
“In order to reach this potential, we have to provide better access to high-quality, world-class skilling on mobile technologies platforms coupled with increasing connectivity in Africa. Our effort to increase connectivity is focused on infrastructure, devices, tools and product localisation,” Gajria added.
It was also observed that despite a contracting economy, the pool of professional developers increased by 3.8% to make up 0.4% of the continent’s non-agricultural workforce. Salaries and compensation also rose, and more developers secured full-time jobs.
In the period under review, African startups raised over $4 billion in 2021, 2.5 times more than in 2020, with fintech startups making up over half of this funding.
The shift to remote work also created more employment opportunities across time zones and continents for African developers while lifting the pay for senior talent. As a result, international companies are now recruiting African developers at record rates.
Without access to in-person education — or affordable, reliable internet access and at-home equipment — they struggled to make gains last year. This can be seen in how the gender gap between men developers and women developers widened: there are 2.5% fewer women developers in the workforce than there were in 2020.
According to the study, educators, tech companies and governments can help developers succeed by improving internet access, education and business support. Bootcamps and certifications, run as part of formal and informal education, are working to bridge the vocational training gap between traditional education and employment moving forward.
Global technology companies are investing in digital skills-building across the continent to improve job readiness and alleviate the tech talent bottleneck. Governments can also play a vital role in strengthening the developer pipeline by investing in both internet access and education.
The developer ecosystem in Nigeria is thriving thanks to strong demand for developer talent, significant support from big tech, and startups raising the largest total amount of funding on the continent in 2021. As countries like Nigeria continue to transform, they will unlock more opportunities for developers who, in turn, grow the economy.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Stakeholders in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space in Nigeria will have the opportunity to meet others from across the world at an event planned for Thursday, June 226, 2025.
The event, organised by Vertiv, will showcase latest AI-ready infrastructure solutions, including key innovations in power and cooling.
The world leader in critical digital infrastructure is bringing company is bringing its highly anticipated AI Solutions Innovation Roadshow to Lagos as part of a global series of events designed to educate and equip customers and consultants with essential expertise for deploying high-performance computing (HPC) and AI infrastructure.
Vertiv experts will introduce the key infrastructure imperatives to enable AI, sharing insights on latest challenges and opportunities and providing participants with a deep understanding of the latest innovations supporting HPC infrastructure, as well as the impact on data centre power and cooling systems.
The Vertiv AI Solutions Innovation Roadshow in Lagos will explore opportunities in Africa’s AI data centre landscape and discuss the latest power and cooling innovations for the AI era.
It will examine how West African enterprises are preparing for AI’s infrastructure demands, addressing necessary policy shifts and strategies to future-proof digital infrastructure across industries.
This roadshow highlights key requirements for implementing AI-compatible infrastructure and services to maintain operational excellence.
Vertiv speakers for the Lagos event include Piorko; as well as Jon Abbott, technologies director, colocation and hyperscale for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Luther Ogbaji, sales engineer, high density and liquid cooling specialist; Sofiat Ojurongbe, regional account manager, and Okechi Osuagwu, key account sales manager.
The event will also comprise a panel discussion on ‘Building for Tomorrow: Preparing West Africa’s Infrastructure for AI at Scale’, which will feature panelists including Wole Abu, managing director for West Africa, at Equinix, and Gerald Madondo, country director at Turner & Townsend.
“This event series marks our dedication to actively support the data centre and AI market across Africa. With the incremental influence of AI and HPC on our industry, we understand the critical need to support our customers and partners with insights and technology that drive their success,” the Managing Director of Africa at Vertiv, Wojtek Piorko, stated.
A global technology company, Zoho, has launched Zia Hubs, a solution within Zoho WorkDrive that brings new forms of unstructured business data into the company’s broad portfolio of applications and AI services.
Using Zia Hubs, organisations can now present any type of business content to Zoho’s powerful capabilities and services—including agentic AI, comprehensive analysis, and accurate, unified search—regardless of file format or structure.
Zia Hubs brings content intelligence to the company’s unified content management and collaboration platform.
Designed with a high level of user control over what content AI is allowed to access, Zia Hubs enables users to organise project or task-specific content into dedicated hubs within WorkDrive.
Each hub serves as a focused space where Zia, Zoho’s flagship AI, can understand and act on the content stored within. This includes a wide range of formats such as PDFs, documents, videos, and audio files.
The platform automatically organises uploaded content by grouping related information—such as section headings, supporting text, and visuals—to preserve context. For video and audio files, Zia generates transcripts and links key moments to relevant topics, making it easier to pinpoint exactly where something was said.
With Zia Hubs, users can surface the most relevant answers when asked a question, even across different content formats. Each response includes clear citations that link back to the original content, whether it is a document, spreadsheet, image, or a specific moment in an audio or video file.
Organisations can also create custom workflows with Zoho Flow, automating document storage processes for particular projects or specific teams. This ensures that Zia always has access to the latest necessary documents automatically.
Furthermore, content from third-party software—such as Docusign PDFs, RingCentral call logs, Zoom video files—are all readable by Zia, and can be automatically placed into a hub by building a workflow with Zoho Flow.
Commenting on this, the Country Head of Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, said, “According to IDC, 80 per cent of business data is unstructured.
“Most unstructured data is text-based, meaning pertinent information lives within email conversations, social media posts, word processor documents, or audio and video transcripts.
“With Zia Hubs built into the full product suite, Zoho can provide customers with a deeper integration than any comparable software platform and nearly limitless potential uses for their data.”
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A leading telecommunications infrastructure provider, IHS Nigeria, has promised to support the country produce future unicorns.
The company gave this commitment at a virtual town hall session organized by the Ilorin Innovation Hub with the theme From Ilorin to the World: Building a Globally Recognized Technology Hub.
The Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of IHS Nigeria, Mr Kazeem Oladepo, said the Ilorin Innovation Hub would be transformed into a leading destination for talent and technology development across North-Central Nigeria.
“We see the Ilorin Innovation Hub as a platform to attract top talent—not just from Ilorin, but from across the region’s tertiary institutions and tech ecosystem.
“This is an opportunity to build globally impactful companies by harnessing local brilliance with global insight,” Mr Oladepo stated.
Responding to a participant’s question on how individuals could contribute towards the growth of the hub, he encouraged industry experts present to engage directly with the hub’s program managers – future Africa and Cc-Hub, provide mentorship, and help in aligning the training modules with local and global market realities.
“IHS is already investing financial, technical, and intellectual resources into the Hub. But to truly thrive, we need champions within the ecosystem—mentors who’ve built real businesses—to guide young people as they develop transformative ideas,” he noted.
He called for the inclusion of successful professionals and entrepreneurs in the platform’s activities to ensure relevance and adaptability.
“Let’s bring in those who’ve succeeded in fields like e-commerce, logistics, Healthtech, and Data Mining. Their insights can help refine the Hub’s programs and ensure participants extract real value,” Mr Oladepo stated.
Also, the chief executive of Ilorin Innovation Hub, Mr Temi Kolawole, described the town hall as a homecoming for top minds with roots in Kwara State.
“This is a convergence of visionaries—people who’ve built, scaled, and invested in world-class companies—now giving back to shape a collective future.
“Our partnership with IHS Nigeria exemplifies what’s possible when public sector ambition meets private sector expertise,” he noted.
-
Feature/OPED5 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism9 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz2 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking7 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy2 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking2 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Sports2 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn
-
Technology5 years agoHow To Link Your MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile Lines to NIN