4 REASONS WHY DATA SCIENCE IS NEEDED IN NIGERIA — BIG DATA IN NIGERIA
Simply put “data” is information stored in digital format and at the end of the day, everything we do generates data. Nigeria being tagged the “giant of Africa” surprisingly lacks in the incorporation of this new technology. With the diverse issues in Nigeria springing from security, health systems, statistics of the population it is only fit to say that Nigeria needs structure using Big data and, in this article, I’ll show you why. So, Let’s get to it
Disclaimer: This post is an opinionated article as a result of research and personal experiences. That being said, I hope you enjoy it.
I don’t want to sound too technical or geeky so everyone reading this article could understand and relate so I should be able to make this less of definitions and more of practical experiences and examples.
Data science has been the hot cake in developed countries for some time now from Amazon self-serve stores, to Business Facebook to Netflix recommendations due tracking behavioral patterns from existing data. You name it, it has proven relevant in different specializations. The questions remain why does Nigeria need this new Big guy
- POPULATION CONTROL:
Overpopulation is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, by estimation as of 2020 Nigeria’s population is about 206million people. Nigeria’s population is said to have increased by 6%, and with is increment there is little to no structure on the population track, effect of population on the economy to track decrease in per capita land. With data science, there’s a more effective way to track and predict areas that have population explosion in recent years to enable the government know regions to carry out proper campaigns encouraging them to implement more efficient birth-control techniques.
- EMPLOYMENT:
Nigeria’s unemployment rate has more than tripled in the last five years, research has shown that one of every two Nigerian in the country’s labor are either unemployed or underemployed. With the initial point on population which has a drastic effect on the daily increase of unemployment, I refer to data science as a spider web whose end provides a start for another loop and this ideology seems valid because without population control and tracking then there won’t be improved standard of living or proper statistics for the production of job opportunities with the increase in population.
- SECURITY:
There is a popular saying “an idle man is the devil’s workshop”. Without a proper track record of the number of emerging graduates from tertiary institutions each year, there is no proactiveness to the development of jobs to curtail the high level of unemployment. This rate of alarming youth unemployment tells on the level of insecurity in the country whereby youths are involved in terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery etc. A country needs to make decisions based on facts and statistical numbers not on instincts or assumptions, using big data gives you a pattern, helps you predict the outcome of security for the economic standard
