Ọlayínká Ìyínọlákàn describes himself as a synergist, and rightly so. As the founder of the Center for the Digitization of Indigenous African Languages (CDIAL), Ọlayínká profoundly understands the role of media, tech and advocacy in ensuring cooperation and collaboration in development sectors. Ọlayínká brainchild CDIAL is a social impact organization digitizing local languages and localizing digital platforms. He is a PhD researcher in Computational Media, and also holds multiple graduate degrees in Communications and Business Administration. In this expository interview, we were lucky to take a deep dive with this mastermind into a world of innovations and policy-making, which ultimately shapes the economic stature across the African continent.
While Nigeria was unable to participate in the first three industrial revolutions and continues to grapple with the fundamentals of these revolutions (i.e., electricity, mechanization, and automation), the fourth industrial revolution is in play and driven by digitization. For Nigeria to benefit from the fourth industrial revolution, it must seek to advance digital transformation, digital skills and literacy, and data management. In the past ten years, many young Nigerians and organizations have been impacted massively by digital literacy. Take a look at how E-commerce, Fintech, online marketing and process automation have boosted the economy past few years. From the click of a button, micro-businesses can get leads on potential buyers; large corporations are delivering more value to customers than ever due to the openness of feedback systems; family members are connecting easily from halfway across the world – it’s incredible.
The world of information is a much better place, and it has helped create a new sector in the world’s economy. However, technology is merely an enabler of processes in industries; other factors are responsible for the widespread economic challenges. Therefore, it will be essential to diversify the Nigerian economy and quickly adopt ICTs as an enabler in critical sectors. The ICT sector in Nigeria is fast-growing, with a 15% contribution to GDP in 2020 and 7.2% for the first three quarters of 2021. Compared with other sectors, it is a fast-growing sector in Nigeria, creating thousands of skills-based jobs in its wake. As many Nigerians become more digital literate, there’s no limit to the growth of the ICT sector.
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Nevertheless, the imperative for future employability is hinged on digital literacy. Nigeria’s progress towards advancing digital literacy is lethargic, potentially leaving Nigeria’s children and teeming youth out of the job market for the future. However, an essential strategy for Nigeria and Africa is the localization of digital assets and the digitization of local assets. In a country of 200 million Nigerians and an estimated population of 403 million by 2050, digital language needs to be available in regional dialects, and local tacit knowledge needs to be available digitally. Over 80 million Nigerians cannot speak English fluently, and the number continues to grow due to poor education facilities, poverty and other factors. That is our goal at CDIAL, we are leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning at scale, to enable Africans to learn, create, trade and solve historical/future challenges using local languages and participate in the global ecosystem.
Out of the 2000 languages spoken in Africa, only 1% are marginally represented in the tech ecosystem. Considering that 15 of these Indigenous African languages are spoken by at least 10 million persons, as their first language, Artificial Intelligence of African culture could reduce illiteracy, bridge the digital divide and create droves of digital migrants. This will unlock opportunities in healthcare, agriculture, financial services and conflict resolution. Therefore, CDIAL is digitizing local languages and localizing digital access. Our solution is art smart AI-enabled solutions that leverage neural machine translation, statistical machine translation, and expert human translators to provide an incredibly fast, secure, highly accurate translation service to over 400 million people in 10 different languages. CDIAL has become the game-changer for businesses and organizations seeking to expand their reach beyond urban populations.
Acculturation is speedily eroding Africa’s cultural and linguistic artefacts. The dominance of French, English, Portuguese and Arabic in the 20th century diminished the socioeconomic capacity of Africa’s rich cultural heritage. With over 1 billion young Africans under the age of 34, new technologies can be a game-changer for restoring, propagating and equating African culture to compete in the world’s US$ 1.9 trillion tourism economy. Our solutions aid creatives, tourists, educators, businesses, and monoglots communicate, interpreting, and sharing information in indigenous African and foreign languages.
On the policy side, there is the need to develop a robust digital literacy strategy and increase fund allocation to education, mainly to make virtual learning more available to the citizenry. This should include the deployment of computers and other digital technologies in all schools and the adoption of blended learning methods across all tiers of education. Furthermore, there’s the need to retrain teachers to adopt creative approaches to teaching digital skills at a young age, e.g., through video games, instant messaging applications etc. Ultimately, all teachers must be certified theoretically and practically to improve digital literacy. There should also be an overall commencement of a robust sensitization programme on digital literacy through local radio. Government-owned media establishments should allocate a portion of their budget for digital literacy. All media organizations should be encouraged to run digital literacy campaigns as part of their corporate social responsibility. There is no doubt that if this is implemented and maintained, Nigeria will achieve socio-economic stability and inclusive growth by taking advantage of the fourth industrial revolution.
Yinka Iyinolakan is a synergist. He’s the Founder of the Centre for the Digitization of Indigenous African Languages (CDIAL). CDIAL, is digitizing local languages and localizing digital platforms to enable Africans to participate in the global ecosystem.
Yinka has 12 years’ experience and a strong background in business administration, marketing communications, technology, creative media, design, and business administration. From his experience as digital marketing manager for Ecobank Nigeria to his subsequent ventures in gaming, animation augmented reality and artificial intelligence, he is a technical builder with a keen eye for the arts and inclusive growth. Yinka is also PhD researcher focusing on inclusive communication and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
He is widely travelled and has given keynote speeches and panel sessions at significant events across Africa. He is passionate about culture, education, sports, and shaping the future. He is also an avid tennis and golf player, a self-taught visual artist, a podcaster, speaks conversational French, and thinks he’s a shapeshifter.
