Olubayo Adekanmbi, the Convener of Data Science Nigeria (DSN) has said that data science could be a major Foreign exchange earner for the country if it’s well harnessed.
He said that data science is the fastest growing in the world and by implication has huge demand for data scientist, this means that Nigeria can become an outsourcing hub for data scientist just like India is in software.
He stated this over the weekend at the Award night for the intercampus machine learning competition and deep learning hackathon organized by Data Science Nigeria in Lagos.
According to him, “The fact is that today in the world data science is the number one carrier, it is the fastest growing in the world.
“So the implication is that demand for data science is not met in the US, in the UK and in Canada, they are all looking for data scientist.
“Interestingly it’s predicted that by 2020 US will have about two million data analytic vacancies that they cannot fill.
“Why can Nigeria not become an outsourcing headquarters, where these projects can be outsourced because these things are virtual projects, they are data projects, they are not jobs that you have to there physically.
“So we can begin to create outsourcing businesses in Nigeria that will be doing these projects for all these international companies, like what is already happening in India and as we do that we will bring more forex into Nigeria and increase our GDP as a country and the multiplier effect of that will drive massive micro economic impact that will bring incremental social welfare and actually make our country much better.”
He added that aim of Data Science Nigeria is to raise new breed of experts who will contribute to driving the Nigerian narratives as far as Artificial intelligence is concerned.
Adekanmbi explained that in a few years from now greatness of any country will be directly proportional to their use of AI.
He said “if you look at what is happening in China, UAE and America, you will realize that the future belongs to the countries that use AI.
“This is why we’ve taken time to start investing in our talents before we go through another second slavery because we failed to uplift ourselves.”
He explained that Nigeria has raw talents that need to be harnessed so as to create the effect that will drive economy impact in the country.
Speaking on the sideline, Ismael Kone, Ivorian national who came to Nigeria from morocco to participate at the boot camp, explained that his reason for participating in data science Nigeria boot camp is in line with the common goal of solving African problem by Africans using AI.
Kone commended organizers of data science boot camp for putting together such gathering that will help Africans solve African problems,
He added that if this is sustained in Nigeria in the near future the country will becoming an AI Hub in Africa.
According to him, “we have the same mindset here in Africa of using AI to solve problems and this is something that have been in phases during this boot camp.
“I met a medical student in this camp and we are thinking about how we can do something about malaria and we know that, it is a big threat in our society right now, Ivory Coast is not left behind, we have the problem.
“So I think that with this kind of gathering, it will help us to empower Africans to talk about solving our problems.
“And I see in the near future a bright future for Nigeria, with all these people that came here to just learn about AI, Nigeria will eventually become an AI Hub in Africa”.
He added that his experience at the data science Nigeria boot camp has been amazing, stressing that before he came to Nigeria he had an unpalatable image about Nigeria but now that he is here everything is different.
He noted that Nigerians are very hospitable and accommodating people.
