The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) has announced the launch of a National Technology Talent Gap Analysis Research, 2022.

This was made known in a statement jointly signed the Mrs Hadiza Umar, Head Corporate Affairs and External Relations, NITDA, and Muhammad Eyinfunjowo, Senior Communications Manager, CcHub, made available to newsmen on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the Director General, NITDA revealed that the launch is an update of the Technology Talent Gap Analysis 2016, adding that it includes updated data and insights, incorporates a more rigorous study approach, and captures the change in the technology talent need and supply since the prior study.

“This research will give us great insights into the knowledge gaps that have been identified and will help us make better decisions on technology talent gap acceleration in Nigeria, said Kashifu Inuwa ,”he said.

In a similar vein, Mr Bosun Tijani, CEO of Co-creation Hub, said, “we are excited to be working with NITDA again on this research as we further curate useful insights on the technology talent demand and supply in Nigeria”.

Tijani noted that Nigeria’s tech ecosystem has expanded over the past decade, and as a result, the shortage of expertise has gotten more pronounced, adding that with a population of over 200 million and a staggering unemployment rate of 33.3%, one out of every three Nigerians who are able and eager to work are unemployed.

“In implementing this National Multi-Stakeholder Research Project, a thorough investigation was conducted into the gaps and potential that can be brought to the forefront in Nigeria.

“The shortage or absence of literature on particular technological skills deficiencies in the Nigerian information technology sector is one of these gaps and possibilities. Therefore, this is an excellent opportunity for this study to define the key and specialized technology talent in Nigeria and their supply and demand projections.

“In addition, most Nigerian institutions of higher education have an incomplete grasp of the impact of technology education programmes. This is an opportunity for the study to gather feedback on the impact from study participants, particularly students,” he said.

He disclosed that the 2022 study will apply a descriptive research approach and triangulation of data.

According to him, as a fundamentally multi-stakeholder study, the research design would approach the Talent gap issue in the Nigerian Information Technology Sector from a comprehensive viewpoint, incorporating all essential stakeholders and participants across all variable spectrums.

“The quantitative method intends to collect data from practicing technology developers and university undergraduates in technology, computer science, and other relevant subjects. While the qualitative will collect data from Universities (Computer Science/technology departments), technology talent headhunters, Polytechnics, organizations heavily dependent on technology talents, development partners, foreign tech-talent recruiters, government parastatals, and alternative technology education platforms.

“In addition, the research will analyze previous publications on technological talent and technology skills in Nigeria to get a broad understanding of the topic under investigation and supplement the aforementioned methodologies. Finally, the research will also collect public opinion on the topic of the supply and demand for IT talent in Nigeria employing pre-planned tweets relating to poaching.

“Utilizing Cochran’s method, the sample size was obtained using a multistage sampling technique. As a result, information will be gathered from 1,330 samples collected throughout all sectors. The initial phase divides the 36 states of Nigeria into six groupings (geopolitical zones), and the second stage, purposive sampling, will select two states from each cluster.

“The objective nature of stage two is determined by prior knowledge of the states that are technologically and innovatively vibrant, based on criteria such as the presence of technology skills acceleration programmes, universities of technology, polytechnics, and a positive outlook for their technology ecosystem,” he said.

Tijani disclosed that in each geopolitical zone, three universities, one public, one private, and one polytechnic, will be chosen from the list of states.

He said the requirements for universities and polytechnics (stage three) are based on the amount of computer science-related courses provided and the number of students enrolled in IT departments.

He also added that a proportional sampling method will be utilized to randomly choose study participants in each department based on the number of enrolled students.