Sanjay Says, Nigeria is now Africa's Largest ICT

The Head , Business Operations , NIIT , Sanjay Tickoo, speaks to OZIOMA UBABUKOH on the institution’ s scholarship programme for Nigerian students and the need for Information Technology education
In today ’s competitive environment, in what way can young people excel in a career in Information Technology ?
Today , Information Technology has changed the way people work and in the next 10 years , it will be about transforming the businesses across all industry sectors to embrace the digital era . Therefore, it is very important for students and young professionals to equip themselves with the skill sets aligned with the requirement of the fast -evolving IT industry . The scholarship is an integral part of NIIT ’s commitment to encourage meritorious students of the country to build a successful career in IT . We are now pleased to introduce new age courses to offer multiple career options to the students in today’ s digital economy.
With an aim to create empowered workforce for the Nigerian IT industry , NIIT offers various other programmes to the students in Nigeria . The revolutionary Mastermind series comprises of Software Engineering and Infrastructure Management courses . While the Software Engineering course will expose the student to technologies like Java 7 , Visual Studio , SQL Server , ASP .net , MVC 4 . 5 , HTML 5 , JQuery , Java Script, the Infrastructure Management course will enable students to learn Windows Server , Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Share Point 2013.
Having said this , what is the future of Nigerian students in the IT sector?
In the contemporary world , data is the new oil as the world ’ s biggest companies are now technology - driven. Nigeria has become Africa ’ s largest Information and Communications Technology market with sectors like e - commerce and cloud computing witnessing huge growth .
These are indicative of the fact that students trained in futuristic IT programmes can meaningfully contribute to the growth of the country and thus carve a successful career for themselves .

Could you elaborate on NIIT scholarship for students in Nigeria ?
The NIIT , a global leader in skills and talent development, established its presence in Nigeria by setting up an education centre in Lagos in 1999. Since then, we continued to affirm our determination to prepare the youths in the country for lucrative IT careers . To this end, NIIT started a scholarship programme in the country to reward meritorious students desirous of building successful careers in today ’ s knowledge economy . This is NIIT ’ s initiative to enhance employability of commendable students to meet the industry needs of the country .
More than 100,000 students have benefitted from the scholarship so far . Since its inception, NIIT has been involved in creation of skilled ICT workforce and has launched several initiatives in the country .
What is the focus of NIIT ’s scholarship programme now ?
The NIIT has now extended its scholarship programme to futuristic programmes in digital transformation under the digiNxt series like digiNxt MMS , Big Data, Java Enterprises Apps with DevOps, Digital Marketing, Oracle , CISCO , Android and other programmes . These programmes have been introduced by NIIT with a profound understanding of the changing workforce requirements of the global and Nigerian ICT industry .
The programme also has the digiNxt- Big Data. Big data is high velocity information that is used to process and enable enhanced decision- making. It consists of Hadoop, Zookeeper , Hbase, Hive, Storm Distributed Live Computing and Sqoop.
There is the digiNxt- Java Enterprise Apps with Dev Ops , and this programme will encompass the various aspects of enterprise app development while enabling a learner to implement these aspects through project - based learning methodology.
For the digiNxt- digital marketing , the programme is designed to help the students understand how to plan , implement and manage comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
Finally, what is your take on the IT sector in Nigeria ?
In 2014, Nigeria became Africa ’ s largest economy and is projected to become a global economic powerhouse in future . Increasingly , Nigeria is becoming a centre for big - tech investment and commercially oriented start- ups . Whatever the country ’ s challenges are , investors and entrepreneurs are attracted by the prospect of scaling applications to Africa ’ s largest population and economy .
According to industry sources, the IT industry in Nigeria is estimated to be among the fastest growing IT industry in the world . Nigeria ’s tech sector is becoming a representative of repatriate entrepreneurs who are reversing the African brain drain syndrome and are reshaping the continent ’s global linkages. All three of Africa ’ s most recognised e - commerce start-ups – Jumia, Konga and MallforAfrica – were founded by Nigerians who earned their university degrees and initial private sector experience in the United States .