DSN Urges Nigeria to Position Self as Outsourcing Hub
Data Science Nigeria (DSN), a non-profit organisation, is driving industry-level discussions about Nigeria’s need to build its big data/machine learning ecosystem, with the goal of being well positioned to access a 10 per cent share of the global data analytics outsourcing market, which is expected to garner $5.9 billion by 2020, according to Allied Research Group.
To facilitate the discussions and help practitioners prepare for this opportunity, DSN hosted an industry engagement summit and a follow-up four-day bootcamp with leading industry stakeholders, which included including the Statistician General of the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Dr. Yemi Kale, among others. Speaking at the summit, Kale said the value of data is enormous, and that Data Science Nigeria’s initiative to equip future data scientists is a veritable initiative harnessing untapped potentials in the data analytics industry.
He said: “Data is money. Some of the multinationals like WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook may be providing their services for free, but they are worth billions of Naira. What they do to make so much money is sell data.”
According to him, “We understand that oil has been the primary source of revenue for Nigeria, but if we start taking this serious, data could be more valuable than the oil.
In his industry perspective presentation, Partner and Head of Analytics Practice, KPMG Nigeria, Mr. Olumide Olayinka, said: “Some organisations do not even understand that they need data scientists, and unfortunately this subject is not even discussed in the boardroom”.
He also advanced the argument that, “Machine learning and artificial intelligence are not taking away our jobs; [they facilitate] the rise of humans to create better jobs.”
His view was shared by the CEO of Diamond Bank, Mr. Dozie Uzoma, who spoke about why a CEO needs data science. According to him, “Twenty years ago, accountants were important as they looked at historical records. Today, data scientists are important because we want algorithms that understand the future and can predict how to meet the needs of customers.”
Data Science is globally celebrated as the No 1 career taking the first spot in Glassdoor’s Best Jobs in America list in 2016 and 2017, while Harvard Business Review described it as the sexiest job of the 21st century. A new study by CareerCast.com revealed data scientist jobs have the best growth potential over the next seven years, as they are one of the toughest jobs to fill.