Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has decried the alarming rate of talent migration from Nigeria’s telecommunications sector and called for immediate action to prevent further loss of skilled professionals.

The NCC disclosed that over 500 software engineers and more than 2,000 trained telecom professionals fled the country in 2022 alone, posing a significant threat to the industry’s future.

Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman/CEO, NCC, who sated this while speaking at the fifth edition of the Telecom Sector Sustainability Forum, TSSF 5.0, themed “Mitigating the Effects of Talent Exodus and its Impact on the Growth of Nigeria’s Telecommunications Industry,” urged telecom companies to adopt flexible work policies, improve remuneration packages, and foster a culture of innovation.

Maida stressed the importance of creating an environment that values and nurtures talent, saying it is crucial to retaining skilled professionals and ensuring the sector’s continued growth.

Represented by Tunji Jimoh, Lagos zonal controller, NCC, Maida warned that the global demand for tech talent has driven many of Nigeria’s brightest minds to seek more lucrative opportunities abroad.

This trend, if left unchecked, could create a skills gap that threatens the sustainability of the nation’s telecom sector.

Maida, referencing a report by the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), highlighted the exodus of telecom professionals as a major setback, adding that the loss of such talent directly impacts innovation and development in the industry.

To address this challenge, he called on telecom companies to offer more attractive working conditions.

“Remote work options, continuous learning opportunities, and collaborative spaces that encourage creativity will make the local telecom sector more appealing to professionals who might otherwise seek opportunities abroad,” he said.

He further urged telecom companies to partner with educational institutions to create programs tailored to industry needs, stressing that the partnership would help address the talent gap and build a pipeline of young professionals eager to contribute to the telecom sector.

He also underscored NCC’s role in mitigating talent migration through initiatives aimed at promoting indigenous content and improving the infrastructure necessary for digital growth.

“The Commission is actively participating in the 3 Million Technical Talent, 3MTT, a programme initiated by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, which aims to train three million Nigerians in digital and technical skills by 2027,” he said.

By Faith Waithaka, 

With some of Africa’s biggest data centre providers now based in West Africa, it would be safe to say that the region is going that an era of tremendous and even unprecedented growth. 

Faith Waithaka

Traditionally quite modest, with capacities ranging from one to three Megawatts (MW), West Africa now features numerous high-capacity datacentres; with plans underway to build its first Tier-4, 1500 rack data centre later this year.

But with size comes complexity.  Building a Tier-4 data centre is not simply a matter of scaling up from a 1 MW facility; technical requirements and complexities increase exponentially.

Let’s use UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) as an example, while commissioning a single unit is quite straightforward, paralleling multiple systems to achieve higher power outputs introduces significant complexity.

Here, you require an experienced design engineer that can plan for the integration of multiple systems from get-go, ensuring that components like bus bars and cables can handle the combined power load. Without this foresight, designs may fall short and necessitate costly and time-consuming revisions.

It’s double-edged sword, West Africa is going through a wonderful growth era but at the same time facing a lack of skilled individuals that can handle these big data centre projects. And unlike our peers in countries such as Sweden and Ireland, which have extensive experience with 40 MW or even 100 MW data centres, West Africa is still building its capacity.

Also, this skills gap spans from design and technical implementation to the ongoing maintenance of operations facilities, once up and running. There is therefore a critical need to develop a workforce capable of supporting both 1 MW facilities and large-scale 100 MW operations.

OEMs’ part to play

As global entities with extensive experience and expertise, OEMs can transfer knowledge and best practices to the West African data centre market.  And it works, in East Africa, Schneider Electric is proactively leveraging its global expertise to upskill local teams in countries like Kenya to among others bring in specialists from Europe to work alongside local engineers.

This hands-on, on-the-job training leaves a lasting impact, building local capacity and importantly ensuring that the skills remain within the region.

However, OEMs can’t do it alone, and they shouldn’t.  To accelerate the upskilling process, OEMs should form strategic partnerships with local companies, data centre operators, and educational institutions.

In turn, these partnerships can facilitate comprehensive training programmes, internships, and graduate placements, creating a pipeline of skilled professionals ready to meet the demands of the growing market.

There is also another element to consider; the positive impact Africa’s data centre growth will have on the rest of the world.

These facilities are becoming integral to the global digital infrastructure, supporting a wide range of services and applications.

It is therefore in all role players’ best interest to ensure that these data centres are built and operated to the highest standards. This investment will not only support local economies but also enhance the reliability and resilience of the global digital ecosystem.

Through strategic, local partnership, OEMs like Schneider Electric can contribute to an environment that fosters knowledge transfer and relevant, comprehensive training programmes.

Success is always reliant on the sum of its parts and OEMs have an important role to play in establishing West Africa as key player in the global data centre industry.

Faith Waithaka, works at Schneider Electric as Cloud and Service Provider Segment Sales Lead: Anglophone Africa. 

Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, today announced the launch of Zoho IoT, a user-friendly and scalable low-code platform designed to build and deploy custom IoT solutions.

Zoho IoT elevates the concept of connectivity by seamlessly collecting and managing IoT device data in real time, offering businesses intelligent insights and streamlined operational analysis.

Zoho IoT’s intuitive features empower organisations to automate processes and make data-driven decisions effortlessly, without the need for extensive technical expertise.

Zoho IoT fully integrates with Zoho’s existing suite of applications, providing enhanced visibility and control. Its compatibility with third-party hardware allows for quick integration into existing infrastructures, enabling businesses to scale rapidly as they grow. The platform is built with robust security measures, ensuring data privacy and compliance with global standards.

A recent study by Kaspersky found that over 50% of companies have integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) into their systems. Furthermore, 33% are looking to adopt these interconnected technologies in the next two years. Experts advise that business owners should invest in robust cybersecurity solutions to protect their infrastructure.

Zoho IoT features advanced AI capabilities, allowing business users to develop powerful custom solutions more efficiently. Leveraging Zoho IoT’s AI capabilities, businesses can transform data into actionable insights, predict system outages, identify anomalies or forecast trends, optimise operations, and enhance customer experiences.

“The IoT landscape has long been dominated by developer-centric platforms and industry-specific solutions,” Kehinde Ogundare, Country Head, Zoho Nigeria. “Zoho IoT addresses this by offering full customisation and interoperability, making it easier for businesses to adopt and benefit from IoT.

“The platform goes beyond basic data collection—ensuring every data point is converted into actionable insights that drive organisational connectivity.”

Industry-Specific Solutions

Zoho IoT efficiently gathers and manages data from IoT devices in real time, providing businesses with valuable insights and streamlined operational analysis. Its user-friendly features enable organisations to automate processes and make informed, data-driven decisions without requiring extensive technical skills.

The platform’s AI capabilities convert data into actionable insights, allowing for the prediction of system outages, detection of anomalies, trend forecasting, operational optimization, and improved customer experiences.

Zoho IoT integrates with Zoho’s existing suite of applications, providing enhanced visibility and control. Its compatibility with third-party hardware allows for quick integration into existing infrastructures, enabling businesses to scale rapidly as they grow. The platform is built with robust security measures, ensuring data privacy and compliance with global standards.

Zoho IoT offers pre-built solutions for different industries, such as Industrial IoT (users can track and manage shop floor productivity and machine uptime, while reducing maintenance and repairs of high capital assets), Smart Buildings (provides users a unified system to manage and monitor assets, tenants, energy, and facilities), Energy Management (users can control energy usage by monitoring consumption patterns and enabling efficiency measures).

The platform also offers end-to-end capabilities and integrations with offerings like Point Solutions (for remote management and control, enabling operational visibility and allowing businesses to solve specific challenges such as gas monitoring, water leakage monitoring, and indoor air quality management) and Connected OEMs (businesses can boost efficiency, enable real-time data insights and remote monitoring with smart products and connected OEMs, providing it as a value-added service).

Pricing

Zoho IoT offers flexible, pay-as-you-grow pricing plans, starting from NGN80357 for up to 25 devices and scaling to NGN818330 for up to 500 devices, with the ability to support thousands of devices and billions of data points.