By Firmain Eric Mbadinga
A famous 1995 video on YouTube shows the American talk show host David Letterman in various stages of disbelief as Microsoft boss Bill Gates calmly explains the Internet to him.
At one point, Letterman asks Gates, "Why don't I have a computer?"
"Part of your problem is you have too many assistants," Gates replies.
Cut to 2024, young geek Sylvère Boussamba spends most of his day teaching digital technology to a group of learners of all ages in his native Gabon.
He aims to train 100,000 in the short term so that they can ease into professions that require skills in web development and digital marketing, among others.
Boussamba has been largely self-taught since he started his journey into computer programming at 11. In many ways, he is a child of the tech revolution Gates was at pains to explain to Letterman less than three decades ago.
Pursuit of Vision 2034
Since 2018, when Boussamba launched the École 241 programme in Libreville, training young Gabonese in digital professions has been a mission for him.
However to widen the scope of this objective, he has introduced the option of online courses alongside classroom teaching and added the word "Communities" to its name.
In the medium term, École 241 Communities hopes to enable at least a million Gabonese, approximately half the current population, to discover and master basic digital skills by 2034.
A trainee only requires a smartphone, tablet, computer and the desire to acquire skills in digital technology, web development, or digital marketing within a reasonable timeframe.
Boussamba and his team have created an introductory module in basic digital skills for learners who cannot afford purely vocational training.
"Before École 241, I had the experience, but I didn't have the skills," Venceslas Bybaya Moussounda, one of the programme's many beneficiaries, tells TRT Afrika.
"I chose to train as a digital consultant, which is like a Swiss Army knife. It's a person with several skills who can respond to any request. He can be a designer, a graphic artist, or a manager."
Equipped with digital skills after eight months of training, the young man has graduated from being an assistant manager in a private company to a manager.
Moussounda, who received free vocational training, graduated with a certificate and an attestation that have helped enhance his career prospects.
Another young Gabonese, Syntiche Jisca Esseng Oyono, joined a training programme that was a prequel to École 241 Communities while studying at a university in Libreville. Five years later, she leads partnerships in a bancassurance initiative.
"My professional advancement is largely due to the digital skills I picked up through the programme," she says.
École 241 Communities' free training option includes a module on digital businesses. It provides trainees the resources to use their smartphones for productivity, complete administrative tasks online, and operate applications.
Daunting digital leap
According to projections by the Boston Consulting Group, Africa's digital economy will be worth US $180 billion by 2025 and $712 billion by 2050. The continent has already developed a dynamic innovation ecosystem in areas such as mobile financial services, telemedicine, and e-commerce.
Around 87% of leading African businesspeople identify the development of digital skills as a priority requiring additional investment.
Boussamba, also a senior IT management technician, believes this is a good time for the continent to accelerate.
"To meet the demand for digital services on the continent, 650 million workers must be trained or retrained in digital skills by 2030. If we want to improve Gabon's digital presence, we need to train our population on a large scale," Boussamba tells TRT Afrika.
According to UNESCO, only 11% of higher education graduates in Africa have formal digital training. The UN agency also points out that the Internet penetration rate in households is only 11%, compared with almost 36% in Arab countries.
While 28% of households in developing countries have a computer, the corresponding figure is only 8% in sub-Saharan Africa.
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