I went to use an ATM today, and could not help noticing how everyday ordinary people struggle with the machine.
In my job, as well as in everyday life, I tend to notice how technophobic Nigerians can be. Sure, we like to associate with some 'gadgets', like mobiles, computers, home theater systems, hi-tech fast cars, etc . . . but we display unbelievable levels of ignorance when it comes to using those products.

Also, the same paradox pervades our industries, systems, and processes. You go to a bank that has spent millions of dollars on electronic banking, and you still find the same shambolic operating procedures. Systems are not trusted, believed, or even attempts made to understand the way they work. We spend billions upon billions upon billions on technology in Nigeria - I mean, Iran built a nuclear power plant that works, for $4bn, while Nigeria supposedly spent close to $20bn on power projects, with nothing to show.

Not that the tech doesn't work, it definitely does, and we see that on the micro level. But on the macro level, fa-faoul!

Why do you think this is so? Comments pls.

who cares, ?


NO COMMENT

Technophobic, I recommend that evey IT Student and every graduate in Nigeria
gets an X-BOX, Play-station or Wii, and play to their hearts content,
when they go to work they will feel at home with techno-software and it will
do wonders for their personal development,
There is a reason why billions are spent on toys in Europe and North America,
its to make the kids dreams and visualize what they can be or do,

ie toys race-cars, fire-engines, guitars, etc,

Note, X-BOX Players make better IT/Computer workers, its has been
scientifically proven,

GET AN X-BOX,

Its not peculiar to Nigeria only.I live in the UK and i get baffled at how an average british struggles with gadgets too,

I think it all boils down to how enthusiastic people are about gadgets, some people just don really care about gadgets as long as lagers are still sold in pubs,
gagdget can take the back seat,

my wife is a nurse and i still teach her daily how to use her iphone,

person dey find money to buy groundnut drink garri na X BOX person fit buy

long way to go for Nigs

will be nice they become comfortable with ATMs. those smelling money/germ infectious all around

@ Ajanlekoko
                  Some time I feel that we don,t know that we are a developing country.That is where the problem lies.In a nation that everyone is looking for survival,The last thing on people's mind is tech.

martinosi:

Technophobic, I recommend that evey IT Student and every graduate in Nigeria
gets an X-BOX, Play-station or Wii, and play to their hearts content,
when they go to work they will feel at home with techno-software and it will
do wonders for their personal development,
There is a reason why billions are spent on toys in Europe and North America,
its to make the kids dreams and visualize what they can be or do,

ie toys race-cars, fire-engines, guitars, etc,

Note, X-BOX Players make better IT/Computer workers,  its has been
scientifically proven,

GET AN X-BOX,

Please tell me you are joking. . . . .please.

martinosi:

Technophobic, I recommend that evey IT Student and every graduate in Nigeria
gets an X-BOX, Play-station or Wii, and play to their hearts content,
when they go to work they will feel at home with techno-software and it will
do wonders for their personal development,
There is a reason why billions are spent on toys in Europe and North America,
its to make the kids dreams and visualize what they can be or do,

ie toys race-cars, fire-engines, guitars, etc,

Note, X-BOX Players make better IT/Computer workers, its has been
scientifically proven,

GET AN X-BOX,

I agree kampe! This is one strategy

I think we also need education on life with tech. Private organisations like the banks are just throwing tech at us, even though the tech is not hi tech it seems too much for the average Nigerian. The govt should educate the nation.

We spend billions upon billions upon billions on technology in Nigeria - I[i] mean, Iran built a nuclear power plant that works, for $4bn, while Nigeria supposedly spent close to $20bn on power projects, with nothing to show.[/i]

ohhhhhhhhhhhh! This statement is so powerful, drives me ta tears.

pappy2000:

@ Ajanlekoko
                  Some time I feel that we don,t know that we are a developing country.That is where the problem lies.In a nation that everyone is looking for survival,The last thing on people's mind is tech.
                   

But in today's world, we need tech to survive. Look at India. They also have natural resources, but they know it won't be enough to guarantee the survival of their nation. So they turned to tech.

martinosi:

Technophobic, I recommend that evey IT Student and every graduate in Nigeria
gets an X-BOX, Play-station or Wii, and play to their hearts content,
when they go to work they will feel at home with techno-software and it will
do wonders for their personal development,
There is a reason why billions are spent on toys in Europe and North America,
its to make the kids dreams and visualize what they can be or do,

ie toys race-cars, fire-engines, guitars, etc,

Note, X-BOX Players make better IT/Computer workers, its has been
scientifically proven,

GET AN X-BOX,

Go to every street corner in every ghetto in Lagos, and you'll find kids lining up to play video games with money pilfered from their parents' wallets and purses.

AjanleKoko:

But in today's world, we need tech to survive. Look at India. They also have natural resources, but they know it won't be enough to guarantee the survival of their nation. So they turned to tech.

Go to every street corner in every ghetto in Lagos, and you'll find kids lining up to play video games with money pilfered from their parents' wallets and purses.

and they come out as scammers/yahoo yahoo boys instead.

sayso:

and they come out as scammers/yahoo yahoo boys instead.

Easy to see why. They have the savvy, but where's the platform to exercise their brains? None exists. So they find a natural outlet in Yahoo.

That's why www.080advertising.com is helping Nigerians with secret GSM codes to make the most of their phone. Anyboy who have a GSM phone this website have made it easy for you to best know your phone functionalities thereby using your phone to the fullest. They will also provide you list of all GSM phone numbers in Nigeria incase you want to advertise by SMS. For more info go to http://www.080advertising.com

OMO IBO:

Please tell me you are joking. . . . .please.

no its not a joke, kids playing Xboxes and PC games are the same kids that brought you Facebook,Myspace and Twitter.American.Japanese and eurpoean children are encouraged to enhance their Cognitive abilities by playing complex games on PC's,most games that inolve problem solving,networking.who do you think develops these games,the same kids who play them, its a multi billion dollar industry,while we send our kids to school to cram volumes of nonsense material from books.They can't cope in real life situations that involve the internet/technology because they have not experimented with them before.

martinosi:

Technophobic, I recommend that evey IT Student and every graduate in Nigeria
gets an X-BOX, Play-station or Wii, and play to their hearts content,
when they go to work they will feel at home with techno-software and it will
do wonders for their personal development,
There is a reason why billions are spent on toys in Europe and North America,
its to make the kids dreams and visualize what they can be or do,

ie toys race-cars, fire-engines, guitars, etc,

Note, X-BOX Players make better IT/Computer workers, its has been
scientifically proven,

GET AN X-BOX,

Good talk! well said.

Problem is the level of poverty and like someone rightly said, people are looking for means to survive and care less about tech.
But then again we just need to educate ourselves and some of these so called tech stuff have well detailed manuals to guide you step by step( again how many people really care about reading these manuals), some oh! not them them type, As regards the playing of games, I played football, ps3, x-box, chess, table tennis, basketball, Lawn Tennis, Snooker.(not pool, the one with fifteen red balls and six colored ones on a 6 by twelve(now 7 by 14) table. And sincerely in all these games i excelled and that did not stop me from doing well as an economic graduate and IT professional.

All fingers are not equal but we still need to engage in tech activities that can stimulate our interest and feel for these things, After all its the 21st century, except we are saying Naija still in the 80's.

Okay.
I am a technician in C++ programming
I am a medium specialist in 3ds Max (3d Modelling)
And I ain't even up to 18. . . . . . . . . . . . .
If it wasn't for the Playstation which my Dad refused to buy. . . . . . I wouldn't be on Nairaland. . . . I wouldn't be a professional Geek. So we should give credit to Video Games.

I think its the lack of will to make change, Nigeria can do all this stuff if it wants too. But some people just prefer the way we are. We like to associate our selves with latest technology, but using it the right way as always been a problem.

AjanleKoko:

I went to use an ATM today, and could not help noticing how everyday ordinary people struggle with the machine.
,
Why do you think this is so? Comments pls.

I think there are two main reasons:
       1. Familiarity  - the only way to solve this is through exposure and time.
       2. Bad user interface – I think the engineers are to blame for not developing an interface that is understood by their clients.

kabukabu:

no its not a joke, kids playing Xboxes and PC games are the same kids that brought you Facebook,Myspace and Twitter.American.Japanese and eurpoean children are encouraged to enhance their Cognitive abilities by playing complex games on PC's,most games that inolve problem solving,networking.who do you think develops these games,the same kids who play them, its a multi billion dollar industry,while we send our kids to school to cram volumes of nonsense material from books.They can't cope in real life situations that involve the internet/technology because they have not experimented with them before.

Ok Ok
I see where you are coming from.
Good Idea.

kabukabu:

no its not a joke, kids playing Xboxes and PC games are the same kids that brought you Facebook,Myspace and Twitter.American.Japanese and eurpoean children are encouraged to enhance their Cognitive abilities by playing complex games on PC's,most games that inolve problem solving,networking.who do you think develops these games,the same kids who play them, its a multi billion dollar industry,while we send our kids to school to cram volumes of nonsense material from books.They can't cope in real life situations that involve the internet/technology because they have not experimented with them before.

About the only thing playing video games will do is to improve your hand-to-eye coordination. It does nothing to prepare you mentally for a high tech job (whatever that means) except if you want to fly airplanes or things that require hand-to-eye coordination.

But if you’re curious enough to wonder how you go about moving the animation on the TV screen through your xbox controller, you might be onto something.

Of course there could be games that improve your cognitive skills but most of them are developed specifically for such a thing (think simulations). Simulations are used HEAVLY in the air force.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that having an inquisitive mind or being a tinkerer has nothing to do with playing video games.

This tin dey tire me. I play X-BOX like say them they pay me.

martinosi:

Technophobic, I recommend that evey IT Student and every graduate in Nigeria
gets an X-BOX, Play-station or Wii, and play to their hearts content,
when they go to work they will feel at home with techno-software and it will
do wonders for their personal development,
There is a reason why billions are spent on toys in Europe and North America,
its to make the kids dreams and visualize what they can be or do,

ie toys race-cars, fire-engines, guitars, etc,

Note, X-BOX Players make better IT/Computer workers,  its has been
scientifically proven,

GET AN X-BOX,

lets us all put our  hands together and create a new generation of game players, testers, game programmers, etc,
buy an xbox for your child today!!!

Technology is a perfect science, white is white and black is black - no grammar. as you all know na only grammar bi our own.

Tech isn't all about XBOX or games in general, although the playing of strategic games does improve the abilities of kids. Although not related, I was having an argument with a someone on this tread on a similar topic like this https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=486215.msg6468997#msg6468997 why Nigerian universities are dirty, I kept telling him your environment makes an average student succeed and has nothing to do with cramming of books. In this case, familiarity of tech exposure in our environment would certainly help people understand how it works.

no its not a joke, kids playing Xboxes and PC games are the same kids that brought you Facebook,Myspace and Twitter.American.Japanese and eurpoean children are encouraged to enhance their Cognitive abilities by playing complex games on PC's,most games that inolve problem solving,networking.who do you think develops these games,the same kids who play them, its a multi billion dollar industry,while we send our kids to school to cram volumes of nonsense material from books.They can't cope in real life situations that involve the internet/technology because they have not experimented with them before.

You're 100% right!! Go to Japan and see what is happening there! Because the entire people of Japan thinks and live technology, They will ever remain the richest country on earth. It is certainly that America remain the richest country on earth in terms of GDP but Japan is still the richest in terms of Per Capita, ie, income per head. How can Nigeria move forward when a common "spoon" is imported from China?

OMO IBO:

Please tell me you are joking. . . . .please.

OMO IBO:

Ok Ok
I see where you are coming from.
Good Idea.

I was very surprised that you did not immediately get the point of his post.  Clearly such games have educational and instructional value and stimulate creativity.
Effective learning is not  about cramming textbooks but stimulating the mind to think innovatively. This is easier when it is seen as fun as well as challenging.

We depend so much on traditional ways of doing things hence we are not inventive enough to try other options. We only just need to get ourselves involved and be familiar with lots of things that will develop our inquisitive mind to find out how things work. Another problem is that we  haven't developed our creative side alot when we are young and we are already grownups before we normally get access to our first gadgets or technological systems.

For example i was already in my mid twenties before i could have access to a phone and a computer unlike my counterparts in the west who have these and even more at a very young age.

Pharoh:

We depend so much on traditional ways of doing things hence we are not inventive enough to try other options. We only just need to get ourselves involved and be familiar with lots of things that will develop our inquisitive mind to find out how things work. Another problem is that we  haven't developed our creative side alot when we are young and we are already grownups before we normally get access to our first gadgets or technological systems.

For example i was already in my mid [b]twenties [/b]before i could have access to a phone and a computer unlike my counterparts in the west who have these and even more at a very young age.

Did u say twenties? how late of the twenties?

one might be able to make the gaming argument for pc games

my first experience with tweaking anything pc related was adjusting the keyboard settings of quake
then again, its prolly a lot of bs - my brother was better at pc games than i was for a time, but today, i'm the tech/pc expert

basically, most pc geeks/techies are gamers but most gamers are not necessarily geeks/techies

most nigerians are afraid of tech , imho

manny4life:

Did u say twenties?   how late of the twenties?

Hehehehe abeg na typo error. . . . early twenties i meant to say  

But really this topic is one of the issues affecting our development in that country, we do not have tools to get ourselves involved with to develop our creative side. I have always been very inquisitive and trying to get something new out of whatever i lay my hands on but the education system and society really killed that spirit.

When i look back these days to my primary and secondary school days i can't help but shed tears because we have never done what was right. I really mean to say we were never encouraged, watched or even supported with our little creativity. I remember we made different objects with clays and papers. We made guns from big biros, broom sticks and papers, when we found out that straws could not pierce into our oranges and grape we used our biros to suck the water. We made cars, used flat woods and rollers under it to move big objects around.

In fact i still look back at my secondary school personal calculation books and the formulas i derived/invented in geometry personally and when i compare that to what is obtainable in the society ( cramming and reading just for you to pass your test and examinations then i realize that's where we missed the boat) . Instead of watching some programs on tv where they teach some kind of handwork we were made to watch cartoons. We will always be behind if we don't try to be inquisitive, innovative or engage ourselves in activities that seek for solutions to better any existing situation. I think after addressing the cause of this malaise we should all recommend solutions to it.

tensor777:

I was very surprised that you did not immediately get the point of his post.  Clearly such games have educational and instructional value and stimulate creativity.
Effective learning is not  about cramming textbooks but stimulating the mind think innovatively. This is easier when it is seen as fun as well as challenging.

Lol,
Honestly, all i saw in the inital post was X-box, X-box and get an X-box.
I tried to mentally tally that to threadtasrter's post and it did not make any sense to me. Hence, my comment.

His response to my query cleared everything up though.

My bad!

I believed playing games had helped me as martinosis opined, especially games that had to do with finding clues (what the ordinary eye will not see).