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Debbie Mishael Consulting Unveils Int’l Careers IT Programme

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The knowledge of ICT in Nigeria seems pretty high, but one of the constraints remains that the knowledge is not essentially backed up with proper matching practical skills and competencies that meet the industry requirements, as well as turning those skills into socio-economic values; Engr. Ifeanyi Frank Ogochukwu, Chief Technology strategist, Debbie Mishael Consulting on the issue.

Engr. Ogochukwu, former Chief Technology Officer with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) spoke on the imperatives of International careers IT programmes been projected by the Consulting firm, saying the initiative directly puts the platform to bridge the apparent gap, intelligently by uniquely enabling disruptions within the IT knowledge, learning, skills and competence space targeted on three levels that will accelerate: IT Education, IT knowledge, skill and expertise, IT Professionalism.

“So, in effect, we shall in our little way create small clusters of knowledgeable, skilled and entrepreneurially minded technology professionals with a global perspective. The International Careers IT Programme is a collaboration between Debbie Mishael Consulting Limited, Nigeria and Institute of Chartered IT Professionals ( ICITP, SA).

“The impact, therefore, is that a new set of value-adding, solution based and business minded technopreneurs will emerge that will enable this economy technologically.

“Nigeria no doubt is a leading country with huge ICT potentials, but the fact remains that we have not been able to harness these potentials optimally because of the huge mismatch or disconnect between the academia and the industry regarding knowledge, skill, and competencies that meet the requirements of the industry,” he said, as his experience over the years in administering technology internship programs informed the whole journey I have.

Engr. Ogochukwu has mentored and coached over 1500 interns from Universities, Polytechnics within and outside Nigeria within a ten year period. “So, I know and understand this disconnect of the academics and the industry on the one hand and the disconnect between technology leaders in organizations and the business they are meant to enable,” he said, adding that unfortunately, technology graduates are not prepared for the industry due to lack of requisite skill and competency to meet the industry requirement or even run their own business.

“They also lack Entrepreneurship and business skills; technology leaders are disconnected from the business and prior learning experience and skill in non-formal environments is also not evaluated and validated”, he said.

On the Level of ICT Knowledge (gap) in Nigeria, he said, “Knowledge without the capacity to translate that knowledge to value for economic and social reasons, therefore, is meaningless. ICT knowledge in Nigeria seems pretty high, but the issue we have is that the knowledge is not essentially backed up with proper matching practical skills and competencies that meet the industry requirements – which is the ability and capacity to solve problems.

“So the very essence of this program is to translate that knowledge to capacity and also capacity to convert that knowledge powered by relevant skills and competencies into economic and social value. So we shall address these known issues holistically in the program. We are addressing the issues on three fronts: young school leavers, fresh graduates/corpers/ final year undergraduates and of course graduates and IT professional”.

He said that the Firm is not just providing training rather forming and changing destinies – creating new mindsets and perspectives.

On the Affordability of these programs and the target audience, he said, “The program fees are very affordable because we are probably the only one entity that has this unique approach to technology knowledge, skill, and competencies. We are preparing people to be strategically positioned to take advantage of the disruptions occurring in our world. Our target audience is primarily youth, women and IT professionals.

“Now the reason is that we needed to go backward to address the observed gaps from SS3, final year undergraduates, graduates, corpers and IT professionals. Those who want to pursue International IT Education, who desire to acquire the necessary skill and competencies and those who are in already in IT professions who want to accelerate their IT career and be globally competitive.

“For secondary leavers – International IT education; corpers, fresh graduates – essential IT skills and competence; and IT professionals who want to accelerate their IT career and be internationally competitive. Information are contained in our website: (www.careersit.org)

Engr. Ogochukwu said that the programmes differ from similar others offered by various organization, saying, “Well, I do agree with you that a lot of organizations are providing training on technology, of course, there is enough technology training out there. However, what we are offering is not just technology training, but we are technology and life skill provider- a blended environment of technology training, innovation, entrepreneurial and business skills and incubation hub mode. Our training modules address all of this- enterprise skills for youths, women and IT professionals.

“Entrepreneurship is a mindset- empowering them in practical terms to use technology to create value. The foundation of unemployment is the fact that school teaches us to be an employee rather than an entrepreneur. That is why we have a teeming population of unemployed youths including many unskilled graduates roaming the streets.

“So our program outcome is to produce globally competitive technopreneurs who can operate in any economy from anywhere. With our program, for example, a developer will now be able to develop an app and also know how to apply the 4p(s) of marketing to create product awareness to prospective clients, and also feasibility studies for the product.

“So essentially we have a holistic approach with our international partners (ICITP) to offer this program that provides you the following opportunities amongst others: acquire a globally accepted IT qualifications and certifications locally here without FOREX issues; highly affordable; examinations are available on Pearson Vue global testing platform; curriculum based on globally accepted National Qualification Framework (NQF); international first year IT Education locally, then subsequently to complete in South African Universities; practical skill and competencies; IT professionals; excellent training facilities; work permit opportunities; international internship opportunities and access to Mentors”.

 


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StarNews, Global Black Economic Forum Launch Business Competition In Partnership with MTN & USAID

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Africa’s leading video streaming platform, StarNews Mobile and the Global Black Economic Forum (GBEF), have announced a call for applications for the launch of their Business Competition in Lagos, Nigeria.

Held in partnership with MTN and United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID), the initiative will empower Nigeria’s most promising businesses that are classified as Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with invaluable investment and partnership opportunities from the USA.

Held over 10 weeks between April 8th to June 14th, hosted exclusively on the StarNews Biz Channel on the StarNews platform, this competition offers a platform for emerging entrepreneurs to showcase their ventures and gain national visibility.

With subscribers voting for their favourite candidates, the top 20 contestants will seize the spotlight and make their mark on the business landscape.

The StarNews Business Competition in partnership with GBEF delivers a unique opportunity for thriving Nigerian SMEs to access mentoring, funding, partnerships and socio-economic development tools through the Global Black Economic Forum.

With the prospect of securing cash prizes through StarNews worth up to NGN5,000,000, getting access to StarNews’s network of investors and the opportunity to gain national visibility by having their business on the StarNews web platform.

The top three winners will also receive coaching from GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence and become part of GBEF’s ecosystem of global leaders committed to social and economic justice across the Black Diaspora.

Previous speakers at GBEF convenings from the entertainment sector include Wyclef Jean (Haitian Musician & Activist), Debra Lee (Former CEO of Black Entertainment Television – BET) and Ceci Kurzman (Founder of Nexus Management Group). Applications will close on April 5th 2024.

Speaking on the competition’s launch, Guy Kamgaing, Founder and CEO at StarNews Mobile, says “The StarNews Business Competition is a passion project close to our hearts at StarNews Mobile.

It’s about discovering the most promising business entrepreneurs and creators in Nigeria, opening up global opportunities for them and providing them with the resources and tools to achieve their goals.

By partnering with MTN, USAID and GBEF, we want to be a platform of empowerment for these SMEs by helping them give back to the communities that are supporting them.”

According to the US Embassy and Consulate for Nigeria, over 80% of Nigerian startups are incorporated in the United States and more than 60% of venture capital funding in Nigerian startups accounted for by the US.

In 2023 alone, Nigerian startups raised a total of $398mn however, this signalled a 66% funding decline compared to 2022 due to the global economic downturn, reinforcing the massive need for a fresh injection of capital and business support for Nigeria’s emerging SMEs.

Alphonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum notes that, “Our partnership with StarNews Mobile is a critical resource as we continue to build the collective strength of entrepreneurship across the Diaspora.

“Building a sustainable ecosystem of Black entrepreneurs in the United States and across the African continent is essential to create a future that makes economic opportunity and economic freedom a reality for all.”

A sister company to ESSENCE, GBEF advances its work by convening global summits and conferences, bringing together world leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities and civic leaders to address the most challenging problems facing our communities.

GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence facilitates workforce and leadership development strategy, addressing the talent pipeline & employee lifecycle, providing leadership development & coaching, and conducting institutional assessments & research.

GBEF also develops and implements economic and social justice policy recommendations with partners ranging from civil and human rights organisations to government entities and corporations that advocate for economic opportunity, social justice, and health equity through thought leadership, advocacy and litigation.

Launched in 2017, StarNews Mobile empowers African content creators with the unique opportunity to monetize their work through a subscription model, boasting over 4 million subscribers and a thriving community of more than 120 content creators.

With a strong presence across six countries including Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire, Congo, Benin and Ghana, the platform has also established key partnerships with major telecom operators such as MTN and Orange.

To-date, StarNews Mobile has secured over $8mn in funding with its most recent raise – a $3mn pre-Series A funding round in October 2023 – led by Janngo Capital with participation from French football players Aurélien Tchouaméni, Jules Koundé and Mike Maignan.

 


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Companies Invest More than $100,000 Yearly to Upskill their Cybersecurity Teams – Study Reveals

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Over 70% of businesses pay more than USD $100,000 for additional training annually to keep skills of their cybersecurity employees up to date, a recent global Kaspersky study has revealed.

However, the surveyed companies also highlighted that there was a lack of relevant courses covering new challenging spheres in the educational market and stated that training does not always bring them the expected result.

In its recent study ‘The portrait of the modern Information Security professional’, Kaspersky examined the topic of the global cybersecurity staff shortage, analysing the exact reasons businesses lack cybersecurity experts, and identifying the ways they evaluate and upskill their cybersecurity workforce¹.

According to the research, companies are investing significant amounts in upskilling their cybersecurity teams: 43% of organisations globally say they usually spend between $100,000 and $200,000 per year on information security courses, while 31% even invest over $200,000 for training programs. The remaining 26% state they usually pay less than $100,000 for educational initiatives².

However, cybersecurity practitioners also note that the educational market is struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing industry and fail to deliver the necessary training programs on time.

Survey results for the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa (META) region shows that the scarcity of courses covering new challenging spheres (48%) was the main problem for those searching for cybersecurity training.

50% of respondents from the META region also stated that trainees tend to forget what they learned because they had no opportunity to apply newly acquired knowledge, therefore the courses were useless to them.

The need for special training pre-requisites such as coding and advanced mathematics, which were not specified at the pre-registration stage were also problematic for 37% of practitioners from the META region.

“With a constantly evolving threat landscape, businesses should continually improve the skills of their cybersecurity personnel in order to be well prepared for sophisticated cyberattacks.

“Developing high-profile specialists within the company and building internal expertise can be an effective strategy for organisations that aim to retain existing employees and allow them to grow professionally, instead of constantly hunting for new candidates and checking their professional backgrounds and practical skills.

“For organisations served by Managed Service Providers it is also important to maintain a pretty high level of expertise internally and use the same language when discussing the scope of services and Service Level Agreement with them,” comments Veniamin Levtsov, VP, Center of Corporate Business Expertise at Kaspersky.


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Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

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Heirs Insurance Group, Nigeria’s fastest growing insurance group, has launched a new website that delivers the most user-friendly insurance experience in the industry.

Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

In addition to its features that aid simple navigation, the website also personalizes the insurance experience taking customers through a short journey that enables them to make decisions quickly on the best insurance plan to support their personal and business success, or access competent insurance advisors to speak with.

According to Ifesinachi Okpagu, chief marketing officer, Heirs Insurance Group, the website, www.heirs insurance group.com, embodies the ethos of the brand: the delivery of simple, quick, and accessible insurance service that delights customers and brings the uninsured much closer to taking up insurance plans.

She said: “Today’s customers want simplicity and this new website delivers on that request, ensuring that people find the right insurance solutionsfor their needs in a few minutes. We are empowering customers to take control of their lives, their businesses, assets, and their most cherished people.” Heirs Insurance Group has been at the forefront of pioneering a new era of insurance solutions since its launch with the roll-out of various initiatives including a seamless mobile app, USSD; Prince, its intuitive chatbot; InConnect, its partnership portal Digital Experience Centre; and more. With the launch of this website, Heirs Insurance Group solidifies its position as the leading digital insurance company in Nigeria, democratising access to insurance for all.


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