Goal 10. Reduced Inequality

The Problem

Economic inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of wealth in society. Currently, half of the world’s wealth is owned by 1% of the population. Meanwhile, the bottom 90% owns just 15% of the world’s wealth. In cities like Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, estates worth millions of dollars are left empty as their owners are sheltered in another house while others are forced to sleep on the streets, braving the bitter cold or scorching heat. The scene is repeated from London to New York, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires. 

In the same vein, the 25 richest countries in the world own 75% of global GDP. No thanks to the impact of the 2020 pandemic-triggered lockdown, the exacerbation is about to get worse. With an aging population and low reproduction rate, countries like the USA, UK, Japan, Germany, and even China are entering a phase where productivity is being hampered by the unavailability of competent and sufficiently trained workers.

Our Approach

Zarttalent by ISEF is bridging the gap by first training interested young women and men in different information technology specialties. We intend to provide tech companies in more advanced countries with skilled workers to fill the gap. Having them work from their home country, would ensure the transfer of income to lower-income countries and it will positively affect the economy. In Nigeria for example, a junior developer earning 150,000 Naira would be comfortable enough to take themselves and their immediate family out of poverty. Going through the ranks and rising to become a mid-level or senior engineer would mean getting into the higher middle class and even becoming part of the top-earning 5% in Nigeria.

By our conservative estimation, we estimate that by training 40 students in information technology for 6 months, we would have raised 1,738 people out of poverty in 6 years. Considering that our students come in as young as fifteen years old, with six months of training and a year of internship to follow, by the age of twenty-three, they would have been contributing significantly to their society. And that is only the beginning for them. All of this being achieved thanks to the innovation of practical rather than theoretical training encumbered with borrowed courses drawn out to last four or five years in a university, while being interrupted by strikes and other social unrest is a testament to the understanding that Zarttalent has to the situation at hand. By providing computers, internet access, and electricity to the students, Zart Academy is giving them an advantage that the Nigerian environment and education system would have denied them.