‘Manpower shortage looms in ICT’
Experts have advised the Federal Government to put in place, a deliberate policy that will mandate technology companies and mobile network operators (MNOs) to allocate a significant number of slots
Experts have advised the Federal Government to put in place, a deliberate policy that will mandate technology companies and mobile network operators (MNOs) to allocate a significant number of slots for graduate engineers to serve out their one year mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) with their organisations.
They also stressed the need for the government to put the requisite infrastructure in place to attract foreign direct investment (FID) in data centres.
The experts spoke during a ‘Media Workshop on Digital Infrastructure and AI’ organized by pan-African market-intelligence and ecosystem platform, Africa Hyperscalers, in partnership with The Media Training Room (TMTR), Open Access Data Centres and Rack Centre in Ikoyi, Lagos.
They said when youth the corpers are allowed to serve in such organisations, they will have an opportunity to get practical experience and could be retained within the organisations.
The CEO of Geniserve, Gbenga Adebiji decried the rate at which graduate engineers seeking to do their NYSC in ICT companies are deliberately shout out, saying the development does not speak to a planned succession of professionals in the sector.
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According to him, the jobs created in the ICT sector owing to liberalization of the industry have largely been recycled among professionals who have been moving from one company to the other within the ecosystem.
He said: “The Federal Government should make it compulsory for telecom companies and other organisations in the ICT sector to allocate a certain quota to graduate engineers to serve out their NYSC and be trained otherwise, we will build (data centres) and there will be no engineers to run the facility.”
According to him, data centers are the backbone of the digital economy, adding that conscious efforts must be made to keep attracting the requisite investment into the facilities to boost the economy.
Also speaking, the CEO, IXPN, Mohammed Rudman, said interconnectivity within Nigeria remains very expensive. He urged the Federal Government to attract more investment into the data centre segment of the ICT sector and domesticate its website.
He said there is also the peering paradox of having the traffic which is not necessarily local. He lamented the low level of Autonomous System Number (ASN), ASN most commonly refers to an identifier in global internet routing, in the country, a development which he blamed on the punitive cost requirement by African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa and the Indian Ocean region.
According to Rudman, IXPN has been able to achieve about 70 per cent internet traffic domesticated. He lamented the states too have low ASN, a development he blamed on dominance of MNOs, tenant versus howm owner mindset, high operating cost (cost of transmission capacity leading to connectivity gaps among the regions in the country, technical skills gap and the registration hurdle put in place by AFRINIC.
The session brought together senior journalists, infrastructure operators, and industry experts to deepen understanding of the systems underpinning Africa’s digital economy.
The workshop, which addressed the persistent knowledge gap between the media and the digital infrastructure sector, was designed as a capacity-building initiative to support ethical, more informed, accurate, and responsible reporting. Sessions covered core infrastructure layers - connectivity, data centers, power, interconnection, and cloud, project bankability, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in journalism.
Speaking at the workshop, Temitope Osunrinde, Executive Director of Africa Hyperscalers, said: “Digital infrastructure is now as critical to national development as roads, ports, and power. If Africa is to shape credible narratives that attract long-term investment and support sustainable digital economies, the media must understand how these systems work and what it takes to deliver them.
“This workshop is about equipping journalists with the insight to drive better public discourse, inform policy decisions, and ultimately support stronger infrastructure outcomes.”
The programme featured a session on Ethical and Professional News Reporting in the Age of AI, led by Toni Kan, Founder of The Media Training Room and Publisher of ThisIsLagos.ng, examining how AI is reshaping newsroom practice, ethics, and accountability.
Infrastructure delivery challenges were explored in “Connectivity: From Subsea to the Street,” delivered by Adebola Adefarati, Head, Marketing and Communications, Rack Centre, followed by Gbenga Adegbiji, Chief Executive Officer, Geniserve, who spoke on “Building Resilient Data Centers and Connectivity Infrastructure”. In “What You Don’t Know About the Internet in Nigeria,” Muhammed Rudman, Chief Executive Officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), explained the importance of localizing the internet, unpacking how traffic flows, local peering, and data localization affect cost, latency, and digital sovereignty.
The workshop concluded with a panel discussion on the Media’s Powerful Role in Enabling Digital Infrastructure Development in Nigeria, featuring Tayo Fagbule, West Africa Bureau Chief, CNBC; Obinna Adumike, Head, Converged Infrastructure, Open Access Data Centres; and Muhammed Rudman, CEO, IXPN, and Temitope Osunrinde (Africa Hyperscalers). The discussion focused on responsible reporting, long-term sector coverage, and the role of journalism in supporting transparency, attracting investment, and helping to grow help government realise its economic visions.
Africa Hyperscalers is also focused on accelerating the continent’s digital infrastructure economy across data centers, cloud, connectivity, power, and policy implementation.