Nigeria’s tech push to unlock jobs for disabled talents

Nigeria’s inclusive career fair has thrust technology into the spotlight as a lever to crack open employment for persons with disabilities, a group long sidelined in one of Africa’s biggest economies.

BlakSkill, a Lagos-based talent firm, partnered with Sightsavers—a 70-year-old non-governmental organisation advocating disability rights—to host an event showcasing a cadre of Cisco-trained PWDs ready to reshape the workplace. Cisco is a global cybersecurity firm with a presence in Nigeria.

These organisations said the exclusion of people with disabilities from the Nigerian workforce costs Africa’s most populous nation at least N10 trn annually.

“Only three per cent of PWDs are formally employed. That’s a talent waste we can’t afford,” BlakSkill’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Alasa, said at the event over the weekend in Lagos.

Speaking to a packed room of stakeholders, he urged Nigeria’s government to enforce the Disability Prohibition Act of 2018 and roll out tax breaks, grants, and tech-training subsidies to nudge companies toward inclusion.

Signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 23, 2019, after years of advocacy, the Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and establishes mechanisms to promote inclusivity and equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

“Digital skills and accessible infrastructure for these people are non-negotiable,” Alasa added, nodding to a global AI boom projected to add $15trn to economies by 2030, according to PwC.

Nigeria’s digital stakes are steep. Internet users hit 120 million last year, and digital payments topped $713 bn in 2024, per industry tallies, yet PWDs—25 million strong by WHO estimates—rarely feature in this surge.

The Economic Empowerment Officer of Sightsavers, Gambo Yohanna, showcased a nine-month Cisco networking course run with Digital Bridge Institute, where visually impaired talents like Ibiam Okporie mastered routers and labs.

“Employers must adapt—tech makes it possible,” Yohanna said. The fair pulsed with tech’s promise. Okporie’s tale of coding past blindness electrified attendees.

With Lagos as Africa’s tech nerve centre, BlakSkill and Sightsavers see a tipping point. “It’s nation-building,” Yohanna mused, echoing a sentiment that tech, wielded right, could rewrite Nigeria’s workforce script.

Senior Business Partner at CWG Plc, Oparaku Uchechi, touted the firm’s two per cent PWD workforce—small, but growing.

“It is an equal opportunity employer and takes events like the career fair seriously. They bring unique angles to tech roles,” he said, eyeing Nigeria’s IT security and fintech frontiers.

Another non-profit organisation accelerating social justice for individuals, SALT House, led by Executive Director David Owumi, agrees that the discourse is overdue and tech training is the leading spark.

“SALT House has benefitted from the skills and talents of persons with disabilities and plans to increase the number of persons with disabilities in their workforce,” Owumi said.