Digital education for young Nigerians: The Zee Tech Foundation story

At the forefront of community-driven change stands Zubairu Jibril, the dedicated founder of  Zee Tech Foundation.

The foundation's primary mission is to bridge the digital gap for youngsters in Nigeria, paving the way for growth and empowerment for future generations.

The 30-year-old said, "It's not only about providing the connectivity but how do the people see the value in this connectivity you're providing them with."

Zubairu Jibril's childhood informed his decision to dedicate himself to the mission of bringing meaningful connectivity to kids from his country. “I grew up in a community where I had no access to internet connectivity nor computers,” recounts the young Nigerian.

“I would go to learn about computers and come back late at night, and my father would punish me for coming back home late .”

With a zeal to learn about computers and build a community where students can use technology to solve problems related to the community, Zubairu Jibril applied to become a Google Developer Students Club Lead (GDSC) to set up a Google Developer Students Club at his school, the Federal Polytechnic Bauchi.

There he became the lead of the club for a year before graduating and heading off to Kafanchan in Kaduna State Nigeria where he spent one year volunteering with an NGO. “I was just passionate about learning anything that has to do with community or community services, I just wanted to do it,” he told us, explaining that he wanted to go and learn the ropes at an existing organization to learn how the running of such an organization works.

At the age of 27, Zubairu Jibril recalls sitting down in his office feeling ‘discouraged’ as he realised that his dream to set up his organization was yet to be fulfilled. He started to save money from a company that he was working with remotely, based in the US in which he was mentoring people to use the internet to promote their businesses.

He used his savings to register the organization with the federal government in Nigeria, and just three years later Zubairu Jibril proudly declares that “we've started reaching out to people, going to communities, educating people and we are still growing”.

Describing the lack of opportunities experienced by people in Nigeria for meaningful digital access, Zubairu Jibril explains that there are public schools which do not have one computer and even cites the example of one school nearby in which “there are students who sit under the tree to learn because their classes have no roofs.”

Zubairu Jibril and his team, along with the help of 48 Percent, have set up a learning centre with 28 laptops and a broadband Internet set-up which has become a hub for digital literacy programs for young people from his state.

“Since the internet has a lot of things that could benefit us, it also has some things that if we're not careful, we may end up being victims of, for instance, cybercrime, cyberbullying and other things.” Regardless of their financial capacity, children can come to the center to use the internet, learn about computers and how to stay safe online.

Recognizing the challenges faced by students in online learning, the foundation creates physical learning spaces.

Zubairu Jibril explains that due to the nature of learning online, the students may have questions that initially go unanswered but on Saturdays, there is the option for the kids to flag any queries or parts of the classes they have not fully grasped that they need to clarify. “As a student, you should be able to know how to send an email; you should be able to know how to search on Google for assignments on your own.”

The federal government of Nigeria has launched a program to see how they can assist 3 million students in Nigeria with skills in the 3MTT.

Zubairu Jibril explains that they wanted to contribute their part in making the world a better place by helping the federal government reach 3 million people in Nigeria with tech skills that will help them such as UI, UX, cloud computing, and software development.

“We have a lot of students who have graduated from school and are doing nothing, the rate of unemployment is very high.

“These are people that once you train them, they could end up getting a paid job online because the world has gone digital,” he continues, “you don't need to go to the US or to London to do some other work there is work you could do from your own house.”

The Zee Tech Foundation application to be training providers was approved by the federal government and they can roll out their three-month program to 45 boys and girls. Zubairu Jibril dreams of the students not just using the centre to learn skills but also to apply them.

He envisages the young learners going on to acquire internships from international organisations so they can put their learnings into action. The classes at the learning center include Basic Digital Literacy, Online Safety, Robotics, and Drone Technology, as part of an effort to make applied learning more interactive and still beneficial to the communities in need.

Meanwhile, drone technology is used to get students to think creatively about how to respond to a natural disaster. Students are asked to program a robot to take relief material to a certain location.

“The student will have to sit and will think of how long will this drone fly, what the distance was, what was the degree it would have to turn before it lands in the area we need the drone to land,” Zubairu Jibril explains, “so you can see it bringing out the application of what you've been learning throughout the session to solving problems related to the community.”

Just three years after the launch of the foundation, Zubairu Jibril is optimistic about Zee Tech’s future. He sees the learning centre as just the beginning and has high hopes of expanding to a larger space that can accommodate more students.

As he puts it, he envisages “the organization being a life changer for community youths.”