Parents ask me all the time: what discipline would you recommend for my son/daughter who is a science student in a secondary school?  Disclosing my bias to electrical/electronics engineering, I have always recommended “electrical/electronics/computer engineering” or EECE. After that, I then recommend computer science.  Largely, I consider computer science a subset of EECE  and both are largely in phase.

In EECE, you have the chance to build microprocessors and broad electronic systems and then write the computer codes at the firmware/BIOS levels before any computer scientist can have a job. Without those machine-level or hardware-descriptive coding efforts, the field of computer science will not exist. So, everyone has to code with the addition that EECE professionals  must also design circuits and systems, and then write device drivers – the zenith of coding as you would be controlling electrical signals. If you believe that technologies run our world, you will agree that no industry can advance without those circuits and systems. Largely, EECE guys shape the future of markets through products they architect across industries.

Before Google, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, etc can advance, Intel, Nvidia, Samsung, Analog Devices, etc must advance on electronics since all those codes depend on systems to power them. So, once those circuits guys have done their jobs, the next level comes: the computer science phase.

The top-layer world is now run by computer scientists. Yes, the software developers. With the firmware from the engineers up and running, getting the systems up, the computer scientists now build the operating systems and the applications on top of them. That translation is eating the world of commerce and industry. Simply, the world cannot have enough people doing that work. African software developers are having great moments. People need them and they’re paid very well.

The demand for African computer software developers reportedly skyrocketed in 2021 due to the global economic crisis, and of course, emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was revealed by a recent Google report.

In the Africa Developer Ecosystem report, data was gathered from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

In an interview with about 1,600 software developers across the continent, Google discovered that about 38% of African developers work for at least one company based outside the continent.

In short, good ones are hired by European companies weekly and relocated to Europe out of Lagos. Great companies like Andela have been built to export their talent globally. As I write, friends in Google are asking me to recommend a great one to lead an African research project (you need a research experience with PhD in a leading global university in machine learning).

So, parents, engineering is a great field; EECE offers the best opportunity for jobs. Yes, he is biased. I am because 100% of my classmates (more than 200 of them!) in FUTO are gainfully and fully employed by themselves or by others. If you miss that EECE, computer science is another call. Of course, both disciplines are the most competitive in many universities in Africa: in FUTO, EECE and CS are always oversubscribed by multiples.

Of course, this does not mean other fields like chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, medicine, etc are not great. They are superb but if you want a career insurance where with a decent skill you will not look for work, EECE and CS deliver those today in Africa. Remember, the deal is not the EECE or CS paper certificates but skills represented by those papers! Good luck.

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

Comment 1: Of course one need to consider the high paying career or high demand profession when choosing a career, but nevertheless they are only means to an end, not really an end in itself.

My Response: In life we look at statistics. We look at averages. That does not mean we do not have outliers. We have people that tore their PhDs and became monks. We have bankers who left and became teachers. But understand one thing: more than 85% of people become career-happier because they earn more money. That is why banks attract more engineers in Nigeria than our local engineering companies.

When the bank pays you N500k per month, that “grow to love your career” is activated over that engineering firm that pays “40k” and you are not sure it will arrive at the end of the month. But of course in the 15%, you can find people who are happy with the 40k but majority will prefer the N500k.

More so, as I have noted, as a young man, I chose HIGHER pay to help me finance my passion and interest at a higher level. As a mechanical engineering grad, if a bank offers you N500k/month, take it, over an engineering firm that offers N40k. You can use that N500k to finance your MSc and return back to mech engine later. Passion is not food, higher pay can activate latent passion for a job!

Comment 2: It appears parents are changing. When i was growing up and in sec. sch in the 1990s, most parents always wanted their kids who were doing science in sec. school to study Medicine or Pharmacy. Some people, who become medical doctors were forced to study medicine by their parents.. Prof, is EECE now higher that medicine?

My Response: “Prof, is EECE now higher that medicine?” – Medicine is peerless and cannot be compared to any profession. Doctors do miracles in hospitals. I am not doing comparison here. I am biased as I have disclosed.

Comment 3: From human development standpoint, telling children in secondary school to go for a particular course or parents choosing a career path for them is not a good idea. Nobody knows enough to predict the future of these children.

We keep pushing young people into certain career path because we assume is the ‘best’ thing for them going into the future. But the problem is, the future doesn’t follow a straight line. Many parents forced their children into accounting, Law Medicine etc many years ago. And many of them are very miserable now and confused because no one cared about their interests and abilities…

Children should be guided to make future career decisions not parents and ‘experts’ making future career choices for them… They should be guided on making career choices that solve real problems in their societies not based on our narrow view of future realities.

We already have many young EECE and Computer Science professionals moving into other career domains where they can find purpose and fulfillment. Yes… ‘money answereth all things’ but money isn’t everything.

My Response: “Many parents forced their children into accounting, Law Medicine etc many years ago. And many of them are very miserable now and confused” – not possible. Tell me a person who is miserable for studying medicine. Life is about statistics and averages: you stand a better career chance if you study medicine, EECE, CS, etc than Igbo language even if Igbo is your passion. Telling me that someone who studied medicine is miserable does not mean studying Hausa language would have helped.

This thing called Passion is overrated. Not a believer. I believe that you can unlock new passions in life. That means, you cannot experience a passion you do not know that exists.

The day a VC paid $$ for a day’s work opened another passion in me. That day, I decided for a passion to speak before the 1% I never knew that existed. You are in secondary school and magically you have a passion. Sure, you knew of 2% of possible “passions”. I believe in guiding people based on their capabilities and interests but I do not believe in allowing people to use just passion. Why? You may not know all passions out there.

Experts and stakeholders in Nigeria’s electronic payment industry have called for formidable efforts to curtail the growing menace of digital frauds.

The experts, who gathered at the forum organized by the Businessday Media, tagged ‘Future of Payment and Fraud Conference 2022,’ in Lagos State, Nigeria spoke on the evolution of payment technology, existing payment trends, future of payments, and recurring fraud issues, among sundry issues.

They submitted that cyber fraud had been evolving, with attacks growing in sophistication and scope, thereby making payments’ security and prevention of electronic frauds top priority.

Speaking on the ‘Role of Law in Mitigating Fraud in the Digital Payments System’, Prof. Kareem Olatoye of the Faculty of Law, Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, opined that the digital payment system was vulnerable to fraud and evidence of this abound everywhere, with cybercrimes such as cyberstalking, cybersquatting, and phishing, among others, leading the pack.

Olatoye said the report had it that identity fraud global losses totalled $52 billion in 2021, stressing there were, however, a plethora of existing Nigerian laws having provisions capable of helping to tackle electronic fraud.

According to him, these include Cybercrime Prohibition and Prevention Act 2015; Central Bank of Nigeria Act; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act 2004; Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2012; the Advanced Free Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006; the Communications Act 2003; Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation Act; Evidence Act 2011; Criminal Code Act 1990; the Penal Code 1990; Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.

Others were the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999; the Trademarks Act 2004; Anti-Corruption Act; Bank Employees, etc (Declaration of Asset) Act; National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act and Special Tribunal (Miscellaneous Offences) Act.

The Law professor stated that law could be used to proffer solutions, stressing effective regulation was required. Having mentioned data protection must be robust, he stressed that S.6 NITDA Act enables regulating electronic data interchange.

According to him, under the NDPR, a data controller company must appoint a Data protection officer who must ensure the organization complies with data protection laws and regulations.

Olatoye informed the audience that regulation of crypto-currency was equally required, hinting that the SEC was currently working with CBN on crypto trading regulation.

Mitigating the impacts, the Law professor recommended there was need for law mandating payment software developers/owners to ensure security of the payment system against hacking and other abuses that could result in financial loss to the users.

He expressed there should be digital payment risk insurance in Nigeria as seen in the USA and other developed countries, adding online safety law was also required as seen in the United Kingdom online safety bill (s.36), which imposes duty of care to offer protection where criminals impersonate to steal people’s personal data or break into bank accounts.

He further opined there was need to place and enforce the legal burden on anyone carrying on business using Internet-enabled platforms to take responsibility for the safety of customers making digital payments.

“Adequate punishment for cybercrime and effective implementation. Digital Infrastructure needs to be robust. Online policing /monitoring of financial transactions, international cooperation are needed.” he stressed.

On his part, the Country Manager of Visa Nigeria, Andrew Uaboi, who spoke on the topic, ‘Contactless as the future of Payment in Africa,’ disclosed that contactless payment was the next frontier in the Nigerian Fintech and payment ecosystem.

It’s noteworthy that contactless payment is a means of payment that does not require cash or even swiping a card. It requires tapping or holding the contactless card or smartphone near a compatible card reader while checking out.

According to him, the innovation would enable the growth of small businesses and also assist individual businesses to thrive, revealing that Nigerians were expected to tap the full potential of the coming innovation, which would bring more merchants into the financial ecosystem.

He said, “There has been a significant increase in contactless payment since the COVID-19 era. In the U.S for example, one in six people testified that they carried out their first contactless payment during the COVID-19 last year. We have also seen a 40 per cent year on year growth of contactless payment, and all of this payment is also enabling small businesses. It enables the growth of individual businesses as well as economies.”

He therefore urged Nigerians to leverage the opportunity that is coming in changing their business and the economy at large.

Uaboi further explained that Visa was working with the Nigerian government, CBN and other partners to build a framework for which contactless would come in and thrive in Nigeria.

Speaking further, the Managing Director of Interswitch, Hakeem Lawal, disclosed that while support from overseas was important for payment penetration in Africa, the development of Africa’s payment system was largely in the hands of Africans via participation, policies and tailor-made solutions to address the needs. He said it was evident in the penetration of Mobile Money in Sub-Saharan Africa and the wide spread of online real-time funds transfer in Nigeria.

It’s indeed high time the relevant authorities in Nigeria stepped up mechanisms in ensuring electronic transactions become safer and reliable within the shores of the country.

This can only be achieved by tightening regulation that controls the overall activity regarding digital banking. The operators and entrepreneurs in the industry ought to also be regularly trained and retrained. Among all, prosecution must be taken seriously to serve as a deterrent to the upcoming fraudsters.