The growth in the number of software developers in Nigeria and the number of projects worked on has finally caught the attention of the distributed version-control platform, GitHub. Based on recent statistics, Nigeria has the fourth fastest growing developer community in the world. This is huge coming from GitHub because it is the world’s largest community of developers. Developers use the platform to share their code for others to contribute to, use, and or report issues.
This increase in the number of developers is not unconnected to the efforts of many companies in tech who are taking steps to train new developers. Programmes like the Google Africa Scholarship, Facebook Developer Circles, Andela Fellowship and Andela Learning Community, are especially dedicated to training and mentoring new developers and exposing them to modern software development tools of which GitHub is one.
Nigeria is also experiencing an increase in tech-enabled startups that seek to solve problems using technology. GitHub captures this clearly in their statement:
“Behind our numbers is a young, growing community excited about software development and its potential to address some of the challenges Nigeria faces today. With excitement and opportunity comes an expanding startup ecosystem and the venture capital, accelerators, training programs, and hubs to support it.” ―GitHub
Nigeria’s ever-expanding fintech industry also got a notable mention:
“Nigeria still relies heavily on cash, but fintech companies like AmplifyPay, Paga, and PayStack (which you can find on GitHub) are streamlining the way people bank and gaining tens of thousands of individual and business users. With millions of dollars raised, these companies underscore an investment trend that has spread across African tech ecosystems, reaching a high of $195 million in 2017 alone. These startups have also spurred local developers to build an ecosystem of applications and integrations”
Regional DevFest events were organised all over Nigeria in the past few weeks. From the number of participants at these events, there is definitely a notable rise in the number of developers and aspiring developers in the country. In Lagos alone, they were over 2000 attendees, Uyo and Enugu had over 1000 attendees, then Abuja, Minna, and various other places. And this is not even all there is; Nigeria has been exporting developers in their numbers to various countries worldwide.
According to a tweet by Aniedi Udo, Program Manager, Developer Ecosystem for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google:
“We have unlocked new levels in terms of ‘quantity’ i.e. developer population. Let’s now unlock new achievements in ‘quality’ i.e. credible, consistent, competent, capable, committed developers.” ―Aniedi Udo
The champions of the Nigerian tech community have done a great work in igniting the passion for technology in our youths. We’ve also seen more women getting involved in tech and taking up developer roles.
Designers, writers, venture capitalists and other intrinsic parts of the tech community are also growing in their numbers.
Check out the full article here.
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