In a company conference held in Lagos on Thursday, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of Google Incorporated has said his firm would prepare 10 million Africans for ‘jobs of the future’ in the next five years.
The pledge will see the idea Google launched in April 2016 to train young Africans in digital skills extended. Having also announced in March that the company had reached its initial target of training one million people.
Google Inc further disclosed that a combination of physical and online training would be offered in Swahili, Hausa and Zulu languages, where at least 40 percent of people trained will be women.
“Nigerians have to write software for the local economy and we have a program to train over 100,000 software developers in Nigeria,” Mr. Pichai.
A $20 million commitment was also pledged by the company to assist nonprofit organisations in Africa in the next five years. Google announced plans to provide more than $3 million in equity-free funding, mentorship and working space access to more than 60 African start-ups over three years.
New range of products, such as:
- Posts with Google,
- Gboard,
- Google Street View,
- Launchpad Accelerator and
- YouTube Go,
were launched by the giant tech conpany in Africa, starting with Nigeria at the event.
Posts with Google, a product that allows up-to-date posts from verified people, places or things appear directly in search results is now launched in Nigeria, making her the third country in the world (after the United States and Brazil) to have the application.
“Museums, sports teams, sports leagues, and movies in the US, and all of the above plus musicians in Brazil and Nigeria are the only ones with access to the new product, however experimentation is ongoing in other regions of the world," a statement by Google read.The
Gboard, another product from Google is a keyboard specially designed to make it easy to type in Nigerian languages like Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba with the proper alphabets readily available. Google also unveiled an improved search engine capable of saving 90 percent data, which is five times faster with faster web pages from search results.
Google Street View enables users to view any location in the world in a video form from their devices.
“Google maps are just as relevant to a user in Lagos as it is in London. You can view the streets of Lagos from the comfort of your couch,” Suhen Ruhela of Google Maps said.According to Johanna Wright, vice president of YouTube, YouTube Go was being tested in Nigeria as of June, and the trial version of the app will be offered globally later this year.
Youtube Go allows users to save videos for offline viewing, giving file size and quality options so you'll know how much data a download will consume. This will help save data and browse faster, as statistics reveals Nigerian internet speed is slow compared to countries in the Middle East.
The company says it was built on four pillars, “it is relatable, connected, cost effective and Social. YouTube Go will give users control over the videos they love,”
Also speaking, Google Country Director for Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan Chiazor, said Nigeria ranked number one among African users and the eighth in the world.
A live performance by popular Nigerian musician, Adekunle Gold thrilled guests, and the presentation of a plaque to Popular Nigerian YouTube personality, Mark Angel Comedy for hitting one million subscribers on his YouTube account as side attractions at the event.
