CIO 100: How to Cultivate the Tech Talent of Tomorrow

Africa will continue to experience a shortage of technology workers if they do not change their education systems to adapt to the demand, experts say.

The experts led by Jack Ngare, Managing Director, Africa Development Centre, Microsoft, Aunally Maloo, CEO, Computer Learning Centre, Daniel Ngugi, HR, Inclusion & Accommodation, Stepwise, and Nelly Agyemang-Gyamfi, Country Director, Moringa School spoke during a panel discussion on Cultivating the Tech Talent of Tomorrow at the CIO100 Symposium and Awards. The panel discussion was led by Ali Hussein, CEO, AHK & Associates.

Ngare said called for talent nurturing and a change in university placements to allow young people to pursue courses of their liking.

“We should go into the pipeline and try to build the talent. University students still get enrolled into courses that they did not like and this should not be the case,” he said adding that “Africa’s education system doesn’t meet the industry demands”.

Aunally Maloo, CEO, Computer Learning Centre, Kenya said, “We need to change our learning institutions to cover many training areas. These institutions also need to be aligned with new technology that is coming out.

Nelly Agyemang-Gyamfi, Country Director, Moringa School and Daniel Ngugi, HR, Inclusion & Accommodation, Stepwise called for the empowerment of women and people with disabilities to pursue IT careers.

With a population of mostly young people, Africa has the potential to produce more IT workers. This has attracted companies such as Andela and The Moringa School who scout and train software developers.