Ayodeji Balogun, co-founder and chief operations officer, Terragon Group, has urged government to partner with the private sector in order to fashion out 21st century curriculum that would prepare Nigerian students to fit into the emerging fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science, among others.

He stated this at the recently concluded 2019 Data Science Nigeria (DSN) Summit & Bootcamp held in Lagos.

According to him, “We think that in terms of curriculum in the educational system in our schools, government can work together with private sector to influence the curriculum and infuse more advanced topics around data science, machine learning so that students could get access and hands on experience at a very early stage, before they get out of school and get trained by their employers.”

He also called on the government to provide adequate infrastructure that would enable players in the ecosystem perform their duties optimally.

“The biggest problems we have in Nigeria as far as I’m concerned, is access to data and infrastructure. In other countries, the government provides access to some sample data sets that engineers can work with to train their models, you don’t have to think about looking for data sets, here in Nigeria, there’s nothing like that, so we think that government can support a lot in that area”.

“In a continent of about 1.2 billion people across a landscape that may be larger than many other continents put together, it is often quite difficult to identify and reach people in Africa.

At Terragon, our goal is to use data and technology to simplify this process of connecting brands to the African consumer through intelligent connections at scale on the mobile device”

“We rely very heavily on data, and leverage data science to enable smart connections to mobile for businesses across Africa. Data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning are the tools of our trade.

This is why partnering with the Data Science Nigeria AI Summit and Bootcamp was very natural for us, as it aligns with our key objectives and goals. It has been very rewarding for us because we have been able to contribute to the growth of the ecosystem as well as the emerging talents that will lead us into the future.”

Balogun commended the conveners of DSN for the giant’s strides they have made in the sector, especially in the area of democratizing of AI knowledge through their various programmes in our tertiary institutions.

He also acknowledged that a lot still needs to be done in order to get Nigeria students ready for the forthcoming 4IR.

“As far as AI is concerned in Nigeria, it is still day one; we have not even scratched the surface at all. It is a long road and I’m happy about platforms like DSN because we are laying the foundation, but there is a lot that can be done. Which is why we have collaborated with Data Science Nigeria to train young talents in the different masterclasses we delivered to hundreds of data science young talents, we are also sending two outstanding students to Tunisia, to learn more about Data Science and Artificial intelligence.”

“We have a lot of simple problems in our society that AI and Machine learning can help us solve and I’m looking forward to young people building solutions in our space around data analytics & marketing technology to help startups achieve product market fit faster and help enterprises businesses explore new growth areas. I’m confident that AI can help Nigeria leapfrog to the rest of the world in several other areas around education, healthcare, security, logistics and even governance” he stated.

Terragon which started 10 years ago has offices in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and India with more offices being planned in other continents; Terragon has invested millions of dollars in marketing cloud and data analytics technologies to lead innovation in enterprise marketing and cloud solutions in Nigeria and Africa.

“Our commitment to helping African businesses grow faster and achieve maximum growth and return on investments”, Balogun concludes.