Cisco has said that Nigerian universities are not producing more information and Communications Technology graduates because the country needs between 30,000 and 70,000 Information Technology workers to bridge the gap in networking professionals.
The General Manager, Cisco, English – West Africa, Mr. Dare Ogunlade, told Punch that as a matter of urgency the gap between networking professionals must be bridged.
Ogunlade said “the global shortage of skilled Internet providers (networking professionals) would be at least 1.2 million people in 2015.”
According to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index, ‘Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast: 2014-2019 forecast’, mobile data traffic is expected to grow 11 folds over the next five years in Nigeria, two times faster than the expected fixed IP traffic growth.
This growth will require more skilled ICT professionals.
Ogunlade noted that Nigeria is not the only country facing this problem, he said “Increased connectivity, the Internet of Everything, rising digitisation of all business activities, globalisation of trade and travel, and economic growth globally has created the same problem in a number of countries globally.”