Nigeria Needs to Prepare for The Fourth Industrial Revolution - Juliet Ehimuan

Friday, December 20, 2019 / 7:41 PM / Bukola Akinyele for Proshare WebTV / Header Image Credit: WebTV

With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), Nigeria could develop by leveraging the opportunities offered by digital technology.

The Country Director, Google West Africa Juliet Ehimuan, disclosed this while delivering a keynote address at the 2019 Work Plan of the Rise Networks that discussed "The Future of Work and the 4^th Industrial Revolution Powered by Local Content".

She highlighted the transition of the different revolutions that have occurred over the centuries covering the 1^st to the current revolution.

According to her, the first revolution was the mechanization era which witnessed machines replacing human labour that led to the invention of the steam engine.

The second industrial revolution gave rise to electricity as a catalyst for economic activities, while the third industrial revolution marked the era of the computer and automation.

For the dispensation of the fourth industrial revolution, she described it as the era of ubiquitous access to, internet.

The Google West African representative decried the fact that Africa as a continent failed to utilize the opportunities in the first three industrial revolutions, but now had a great chance to leapfrog through digital technology into the fourth industrial revolution.

She called for a public-private partnership in Nigeria that will see more investments in research and development that will spur innovative solutions to socioeconomic challenges in the nation.

Speaking further she identified several areas that Nigerian youths need to develop skills to be competitive in an evolving global economy, they include;

• Big data
• Cloud computing
• The internet of things
• Advanced Security systems
• Virtual and Augmented Reality
• Artificial Intelligence in Machine learning

According to Ehimuan, the emerging technologies in the globe today such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, offer Nigerians a pathway to accelerate growth and development in every sector of the economy.

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