Google To Train 100,000 Nigerian Software Developers


The chief executive officer of Google Incorporated, Sundar Pichai, has said his firm would prepare 10 million Africans for ‘jobs of the future’ in the next five years.
He said this in a company conference held in Lagos, Thursday.
The pledge marked an extension of an initiative Google launched in April 2016 to train young Africans in digital skills. It announced in March it had reached its initial target of training one million people.

The company said a combination of in-person and online training would be offered in Swahili, Hausa and Zulu languages. It also mentioned that at least 40 percent of people trained are women.
Mr. Pichai said: “Nigerians have to write software for the local economy and we have a program to train over 100,000 software developers in Nigeria.”
The company also pledged a commitment of over $20 million in the next five years for nonprofit organisations in Africa.

Google announced plans to provide more than $3 million in equity-free funding, mentorship and working space access to more than 60 African start-ups over three years.
The tech company also launched a new range of products in Africa starting with Nigeria at the event.
The products launched include Posts with Google, Gboard, Google Street View, Launchpad Accelerator and the YouTube Go.

With the launch of Posts with Google, Nigeria is the third country in the world after the United States and Brazil to have the application. The product enables up-to-date posts from verified people, places or things, to appear directly in search results.

A statement by Google said, “museums, sports teams, sports leagues, and movies in the US, and all of the above plus musicians in Brazil and Nigeria are the only ones with access to the new product, however experimentation is ongoing in other regions of the world.”
The Gboard is a keyboard specially designed to make it easy to type in Nigerian languages like Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba with the proper alphabets readily available.

Google also unveiled an improved search engine capable of saving 90 percent data, which is five times faster with faster web pages from search results.
With the newly launched Google Street View, users can view any location in the world in a video form from their devices.

“Google maps are just as relevant to a user in Lagos as it is in London. You can view the streets of Lagos from the comfort of your couch,” Suhen Ruhela of Google Maps said.
The company indicated that YouTube Go was built on four pillars “it is relatable, connected, cost effective and Social. YouTube Go will give users control over the videos they love,”

According to Johanna Wright, vice president of YouTube, YouTube Go was being tested in Nigeria as of June, and the trial version of the app will be offered globally later this year.

Also speaking, Google Country Director for Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan Chiazor, said Nigeria ranked number one among African users and the eighth in the world.
Other side attractions at the event was a live performance by rising Nigerian musician, Adekunle Gold, and the presentation of a plaque to Popular Nigerian YouTube personality, Mark Angel Comedy for hitting one million subscribers on his YouTube account.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How future volcanic eruptions will impact Earth's ozone layer

Image
Volcanic eruptions could result in ozone depletion until 2070 or beyond, despite declining concentrations of human-made CFCs. The next major volcanic eruption could kick-start chemical reactions that would seriously damage the planet's already besieged ozone layer. The extent of damage to the ozone layer that results from a large, explosive eruption depends on complex atmospheric chemistry, including the levels of human-made emissions in the atmosphere. Using sophisticated chemical modeling, researchers from Harvard University and the University of Maryland explored what would happen to the ozone layer in response to large-scale volcanic eruptions over the remainder of this century and in several different greenhouse gas emission scenarios. The research was published recently in  Geophysical Research Letters . Earth's stratosphere is still recovering from the historic release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting chemicals. Even though CFCs...
Read more

New Museum in Anambra State: Onitsha Museum

Image
The Governor of Anambra state Chief Willie Obiano has laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Chimedie Museum in Onitsha. The museum, according to the governor was in part pursuit of the administration’s exploration and expansion of the state’s tourism potentials. He said, “my administration is exploring the state’s tourism potentials as a way of preserving the rich cultural heritage of the State”. The governor acknowledged that Onitsha as an ancient Igbo kingdom, spanning over many decades has very rich cultural endowments including collections and artifacts.He therefore commended the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Ugochukwu Achebe for bringing up the initiative to preserve and showcase the people’s cultural and traditional heritage. He noted that the Museum will help promote the seemingly dying Igbo culture and tradition and promised that his administration will expedite action on the ongoing construction of a five-star hotel projec...
Read more

Anambra Airport City and Osita Chidoka’s tales

Image
Anambra Airport City and Osita Chidoka’s tales By Okechukwu Anarado    Obiano It goes beyond rational doubts that one of the biggest stories of Governor Willie Obiano’s administration in the past three years is the Anambra Airport City project at Umueri in Anambra East Local Government Area. Besides the 1,500 hectares of land on which the Airport City is designed to sit, the $2 billion project is being domiciled in the state at no other cost to either Ndi-Anambra or the state government. A consortium of Chinese and Nigerian firms bears the cost of constructing and managing the facility which, on completion, will comprise an international airport with two runways, shopping malls, industrial and business parks, a five-star hotel and a well-appointed Chinese neighbourhood. Apart from its function as an international airport capable of landing any size of airplane, Umueri would provide refueling facilities for international aircraft on transit. The aviation fuel wil...
Read more