Retaining talent in IT sector is Nigeria’s biggest challenge – Suvarna

Raptors West Africa Limited, the pioneer and largest franchise for Aptech Computer Education in Nigeria, with 10 locations, recently opened a new outlet in Lekki to deepen its market penetration. Sajan Rohan Suvarna, chief operating officer of Raptors, spoke on the company’s trajectory in Nigeria and what learners stand to gain on the back of its IT training expertise. JOHN SALAU, who was there, brings the excerpts:

Advanced Diploma in Software Engineering is a flagship programme in Aptech; what advantage does it offer Nigerian learners?

Our flagship program is the ADSE program. That ADSE program is the route to the UK degree. It costs approximately 15,000 pounds per year to study in the UK (45,000 pounds for 3 years). With ADSE, you study two years in our Nigerian centres and then through credit transfer move to Middlesex UK and study for just one additional year to earn your degree in software engineering thereby saving substantial amounts of Naira and forex.

How does Aptech keep current with the growing IT trends?

We update our curriculum every year. So, today we even teach artificial intelligence, we teach machine learning, which no other computer training institute has. We provide a second-to-none cutting edge computer technology training to Nigerians, who have ambition to pursue both diploma and degree certificates.

How can Nigeria leverage IT for security; attract foreign investments?

We’ve got a very in-depth role in cyber security and cyber forensics. Again, you see most training which is done here is majorly on cyber security, which seems to be what everybody wants to do. But we are a step further. We also have cyber forensics. Cyber forensics is one step above cyber security, which informs you post, in the unfortunate event there is a security breach, how you can now identify where the breach came from, what happened and drill down to where the breach came from. I think foreign investment is already coming. I think there is a lot of improvement. If you see the number of angel investors who are coming here, there are so many new companies. I mean, you have seen all the new apps which are coming, the cash apps which are coming or the banking apps, everything which is coming are all running on IT.

What is your view of the IT sector in Nigeria?

I think the IT sector is the fastest growing and highest paying sector, even as we speak now. That is why the demand on IT education is that high today. I would say Nigerians are one of the best in coding and programming right now with inherent talent and aptitude. I think the IT aspirants also have a lot of jobs abroad, which is what I think Nigeria is fighting to retain. Retaining talent, I think, is our biggest challenge and I think more and more companies have the right training skills and I’m willing to give them the opportunity here. You’ll see a lot more growth happening here. Also, with the right skills, they can bring down unemployment rates drastically. Our course curriculum is totally updated according to the latest market needs. These latest skills in relevant technologies help our students get jobs easier if they wish to work abroad. Huge opportunities open up even in Nigeria as remote work culture for hot skills is very common. Irrespective of your plans of either working abroad or in Nigeria, the chance of landing a higher paying job is higher with IT skills. This is the reason we call our courses ‘Job accentuated programmes from Aptech’ JAPA. Our skilled students escape from the hardships of finding jobs.

A lot of people easily point to cybercrime whenever they talk about ICT in Nigeria. On the back of your interaction with professionals in the sector; how can we change that narrative?

See, it is across the world. Unfortunately, Nigeria seems to be coming to limelight, but if you look at other countries too, it’s still there. It happens in other countries too. It’s just that being here, we hear so much about it and we talk a lot about it. Yes, it is there. We cannot get away from that. But we also have a huge population. Unfortunately, you know, bad news always travels the fastest and that’s what it is. The bad news has travelled far and wide, whereas the good news is also there.

Aptech recently opened a new learning centre in Lekki. Can you tell us about this centre and what influenced your choice?

Yes, we commissioned our latest centre, the Chevron-Centre. This is the 10th centre for our group. We have got centres in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja. Our first centre was opened in the year 2000 in Maryland. The Lagos Centres are: Maryland, Surulere, Victoria Island, Ajao Estate, Isheri and the latest centre Chevron. We also have Abuja Centres in Wuse2, Gwarinpa, Lokogoma and the Port-Harcourt Centre. Our choice of Lekki – Chevron, is the organisation’s goal to bring opportunities close to the target youth of Nigeria keeping the demographics in mind.

Can you tell us more about Aptech and its offerings?

Aptech is a company which is headquartered in India. They have been in the computer business, IT training for the last 35 years. We are a franchise for Aptech.

While Aptech has a lot more tie-ups with different franchises in Nigeria other than ours, we are the largest and we are the only franchise to have the Aptech Learning License, which is the umbrella license comprising Aptech Computer Education, Aptech Retail and Aptech Hospitality. So, this year onwards with the new license we will be offering all the three verticals.

A lot of our students want to have cross functional skills (IT + Retail or IT+ Hospitality) and Aptech learning fulfills that requirement. We want to train people to have the knowledge & skills to give the best customer service in retail. It could be in fashion stores, could be any other industry in retail, malls etc. Hospitality focuses on upskilling and train for the Hotels & Resorts industry. It’s an immense strength to have cross functional skills in providing IT solutions.

Finally, how affordable are the programmes?

So, we’ve got programs starting from about N150, 000 right up to N4 million or even N4.5 million. It depends on the course you want to take. We have one-month courses. We’ve three-month courses. We’ve six-month courses. We have one-year courses. We’ve two-year courses. Content and pricing would depend on the course you take.