Is Nigeria’s education system ready for the age of Artificial Intelligence?
Is Nigeria’s education system ready for the age of Artificial Intelligence?
Publish Date: 2026-02-28 23:06:00
Source Domain: businessday.ng
Looking back after actively working as a software developer across different sectors of the economy, in both national and international companies for over 15 years, I still remember how I started. The interview for my first software engineering job remains a stark reminder of how unprepared a fresh graduate can be for the realities of the industry, even after studying aspects of the job at the undergraduate level. This troubling pattern has repeated itself over the years. Many graduates from our universities are intelligent, hardworking, and full of promise, yet underprepared for the constantly evolving technology landscape. The world has shifted decisively into the age of Artificial Intelligence, automation, and data-driven systems. Nigeria, however, still trains too many of its future technologists for a world that no longer exists. The question we must ask, honestly and urgently, is whether our educational system is ready for AI.
Across several universities, computer science and related Information Technology (IT) departments still emphasise programming languages and methodologies that are no longer central to global innovation. Students spend years mastering tools that were relevant two decades ago but are barely used in modern startups or enterprise systems. Meanwhile, the global industry has moved toward AI-driven development, cloud-native architectures, and data engineering. Distributed systems, machine learning, large language models, and intelligent agents are shaping how software is built today. When graduates enter the workforce without exposure to these realities, they face a painful gap between theory and practice. This gap is not a reflection of their ability; it…
