Iyinoluwa Aboyeji: Technology in Nigeria – Bridging the generational divide (Y! FrontPage)

by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji

Iyinoluwa-Aboyeji

One of the fundamental building blocks of the new Nigeria will be the ability of older generations to stoop to conquer so to speak and more willingly share their expertise, experience and resources…

Pac was like Jesus, Nas wrote the bible – J. Cole (Let Nas Down)

From a very young age, I have always enjoyed the company of older people.

I remember as a kid, when my father’s friends visited him, I would station myself as closely as possible to the living room so I could pick up on their conversation without being seen. There is always something soothing about hearing the voice of age and experience reassure you that indeed nothing is really new under the sun. More importantly it is always interesting to examine the present through their history-stained lens and juxtapose it with our clear, youthful view of the future.

The most unfortunate thing about the next generation of Nigerians is that many lack the guidance of older and more experienced entrepreneurs who have treaded similar paths as they have and can tell them what pitfalls to avoid.

In Nigeria’s technology industry where I work, a lot of young people have no access to older and more experienced people who worked in Nigeria’s first ICT waves. While young Nigerians in technology idolize the contemporary entrepreneurial successes like Jason Njoku, the Jobberman trio, and the Jumia duo, many very successful industry veterans are inaccessible to them.

Many very successful Nigerian technology pioneers like Dr Denloye of
Telnet, Austin Okere of Computer Warehouse Group and John Obaro of System Specs, Mitchell Elegbe of Interswitch, Valentine Obi of eTranzact, Alloy Chife of Socketworks and Ademola Aladekomo of Chams Plc are unknown to today’s average Nigerian techie. A lot of our young people can’t compete on the global stage despite their good ideas and general competence because are working without the benefit of the institutional knowledge a lot of their peers in other countries are working with.

Contrast this with a place like Silicon Valley where so much institutional knowledge has been passed down from older, more experienced entrepreneurs willing to share hard-won lessons and insights with young entrepreneurs in an environment of mutual respect. They not only hand down lessons but they actually invest, financially and otherwise into these younger versions of themselves. The knowledge trough of how technology businesses work in Silicon work is deep and wide because the giants who have travelled the roads before from Hewlett and Packard to Andressen and Horowitz have
enabled younger entrepreneurs from Jack Dorsey to Mark Zuckerberg to stand on their shoulders

In fact, I would go so far as to say, the biggest divide in this country isn’t ethnic or religious but generational. Our culturally ingrained ageism is robbing the old and young of this country of an opportunity to forge the intergenerational solidarity this country needs to rise again.

One of the fundamental building blocks of the new Nigeria will be the ability of older generations to stoop to conquer so to speak and more willingly share their expertise, experience and resources – human and financial – with the younger generation of change makers.

In the technology industry, I have joined a team of young change makers who are looking to close this gap in institutional knowledge through regular founder meetups where we bring veterans of Nigeria’s technology industry to a small gathering of young starry eyed technology entrepreneurs. We held the first one last week and it was very success and we will hold more of such. I personally believe every industry needs to have one of such meetups that encourage intergenerational solidarity between older and younger people so that institutional knowledge is preserved and we make new mistakes not old ones.

After all, if our idols don’t pass down knowledge gained through decades of experience to the next generation, who will?

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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