Bridging the Digital Divide: How Oracle Academy is Transforming Technology Education in Africa

In this episode host Bekere Amassoma speaks with Annick Sakho, Director, Government Affairs Africa about today's rapidly evolving digital landscape and how access to technology education is a crucial factor in driving economic growth, innovation, and job creation. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:35:11 Unknown Welcome to the Oracle Academy Tech Chat. This podcast provides educators and students in-depth discussions with thought leaders around computer science, cloud technologies, and software design to help students on their journey to becoming industry ready technology leaders of the future. Let's get started. Welcome to Oracle Academy Tech Start, where we discuss how Oracle Academy prepares the next generation's workforce. 00:00:35:13 - 00:00:59:17 Unknown I'm your host, Bekere Amassoma. In this episode, I am joined by Annick Sakho who is Director of Government Affairs Africa in Oracle. So Annick to start off. Thank you for joining us. And can you share a bit about your journey into technology, how you got into Oracle and your current role as Director of Government Affairs for Africa? 00:00:59:22 - 00:01:24:01 Unknown A big hello to you, Bekere, and thank you for inviting me today. It's a real pleasure to be here with you to discuss Oracle Academy in this, podcast. Thank you for the opportunity. So I am currently the Oracle Government affairs in charge of Africa, and I am based out of Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire, in the Oracle Cote d'Ivoire office. 00:01:24:03 - 00:02:05:17 Unknown So, you asking me about how I got into Oracle? Well, I started my career as a research and development engineer in a telecommunication company in Switzerland because I hold a telecommunication engineering degree. And later on, I joined Cote d'lvoire and joined IBM at the time when companies were starting to implement remote access to their mainframes and other computers. So, IT companies were actually in need of people who understood telecommunication to configure all these controllers and protocol, etcetera, to establish, stable, secure, remote connection. 00:02:05:19 - 00:02:42:20 Unknown And this is how I got into technology, because remember at those time, originally remote access was, about dialing up on the phone and having a modem to allow employees to connect to an office, network of telephone networks. And, since I joined technology using my telco skills, I stayed there, and my journey started a very fulfilling one, I would say, where I held, initially a pre-sales role before transitioning into a sales role. 00:02:42:22 - 00:03:11:21 Unknown I've been with Oracle almost 20 years now, and, New Year has been the same as the previous one because I was privileged to work with customers in different industries located in various regions across Africa, selling innovative solutions to support their business. And the most enriching part was the opportunity to work in a multicultural environment. To progress to a managerial role and then to lead virtual tips. 00:03:11:22 - 00:03:37:04 Unknown So when I was leading the technology cloud sales team across sub-Saharan Africa a few years ago, I realized that a lot of governments were not familiar with cloud technologies, not even with Oracle solution portfolio. However, we knew that governments have a crucial role in supporting the regulatory environment and the adoption of these technologies in the local digital economy. 00:03:37:06 - 00:04:17:00 Unknown And this is one this is, the reason why when the director, Government Affairs Africa position opened, I applied. This is what led me to, being today the government office director for Africa. In this capacity, I lead and coordinate Oracle's engagement with the African government officials and the various stakeholders like the NGO, the trade union, the industry associations, etc. and working closely, on the other hand, with Oracle Senior Management in Africa and Oracle Global Business Units. 00:04:17:02 - 00:04:51:13 Unknown And part of my responsibilities include educating government officials about our company, about our industry and more generally, about technology. Wow Annick that's quite interesting and thank you for sharing. Now how would you describe the current state of the digital divide in Africa's education sector? Interesting question. Africa's digital transformation journey is marked by significant challenges that require, strategic intervention to overcome. 00:04:51:15 - 00:05:29:03 Unknown And one of the critical areas that needs attention to ensure that the continent can fully leverage digital opportunity. Revolves around digital skills. With 70% of Africa's population under 30. There is a pressing need to reform education systems and to align with our industry needs. And, traditional education, from what I see it often does not equip young people with a skills demanding by the tech industry because we have not been ...