AI, Skills, and Gender: Why Women Must Be at the Centre of the Economic Revolution happening now.

AI is not on the horizon — it is here, transforming economies and reshaping work at unprecedented speed. From predictive healthcare to generative design, AI is altering not only which jobs exist but the skills required to thrive. Governments are scrambling to respond, and recent developments on both sides of the Atlantic highlight the urgency:

• In the UK, Skills England was launched in July 2024 and placed within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in September 2025, taking over responsibility for apprenticeships, adult education, and training from the Department for Education. Under-19 education remains with DfE.

• Days later, the US and UK signed a £31 billion “Tech Prosperity Deal”, covering AI, quantum, nuclear, and advanced infrastructure, with formal agreements on AI safety and shared testing.

On the surface, these look like major steps forward. But without deliberate intervention, these changes risk reinforcing existing gender and regional inequalities. For women — especially those already underrepresented in tech — this is not just a policy debate. It is an emergency.

The Risks: Policy Fragmentation and Gender Gaps

Fragmentation in the UK Skills System

Shifting adult skills policy into DWP may improve links between training and employment, but it risks creating gaps:

1. Split accountability: Under-19 learners fall under DfE, adults under DWP. Women re-entering the workforce after career breaks — typically over 19 — may struggle to navigate between departments, losing support in transition.

2. Funding decline: Since 2010, adult education budgets in England have been cut by 28% per learner in real terms. Participation has fallen by almost half: from 2.2m adult learners in 2010–11 to 1.2m in 2022–23. Cuts hit women hardest, especially those in low-income households and regions with limited provision.

3. Regional divides: A 2025 Guardian report warns that by 2035, 71% of Londoners will hold a degree, compared with just 29% in Hull & East Yorkshire. This “skills chasm” is most punishing for women, who face additional childcare and transport barriers in lower-qualification regions.

4. Employer under-investment: UK employer spending on training per employee is around half the EU average, leaving workers reliant on patchy public provision. Without regulation or incentives, women often in part-time roles are the least likely to be offered employer-funded upskilling.

Gender and AI Disruption

At the same time, the AI revolution is re-ordering labour markets:

• Women hold 70% of administrative roles in the UK — roles most vulnerable to automation.

• Women make up just 21% of UK tech teams, and one in three plan to leave due to poor progression and culture.

• Globally, McKinsey estimates 45 million women’s jobs are at risk of displacement by 2030 unless they transition into higher-tech roles.

Unless training is designed to be flexible, affordable, and inclusive, women will be pushed out of the future economy just as AI wealth and influence peaks.

The Opportunity: Deglobalisation as a Gendered Advantage

Deglobalisation — the shift from long global supply chains to more regionalised, resilient, and localised workforces — is often framed as a risk. But for women and African economies, it can be an opportunity.

1. Youth and cost advantage: Africa’s population is the youngest in the world, with 75% under 35. Labour costs remain significantly lower than in the Global North, positioning African women as a cost-efficient yet capable digital workforce if upskilled for AI-enabled roles.

2. Remote and digital services: As firms seek resilience, they are turning to remote-capable, distributed teams. With the right digital infrastructure, African women could provide AI services, cloud support, data annotation, and software delivery at globally competitive rates.

3. Leapfrogging legacy systems: Freed from legacy tech systems, African economies can build inclusive digital public infrastructure — AI tuned to local languages, fintech for unbanked populations, and platforms designed for gender equity from the start.

4. Policy freedom: Emerging economies have more flexibility to legislate inclusively. Embedding gender equity in AI regulation — for example, mandating disaggregated data and bias testing — is easier to implement early.

In short: while deglobalisation pressures richer economies to localise, it creates space for women and African talent to enter global value chains as a credible, affordable, and efficient alternative workforce.

Why Niyo Labs Is a Scalable Solution

To bridge the risks and capture the opportunities, solutions must be gender-aware, outcomes-driven, and globally connected. Niyo Labs embodies this model.

• Women-first programmes: Initiatives like SheBuilds (a virtual accelerator for women building tech products) and ElevateHER (a mentoring scheme with partners like Northrop Grumman) directly target the gender gap.

• Flexible delivery: Remote and hybrid bootcamps, gamified and rewards based modular learning, and tailored mentorship make training accessible for women balancing work and caregiving.

• AI-aligned curriculum: Certified courses in AI, data, cloud, and software engineering are directly linked to growth sectors.

• Global partnerships: Backed by partnerships with Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and UK public frameworks like G-Cloud, Niyo Labs has the credibility to scale.

• Ambitious targets: With a goal to upskill 1 million people — and evidence of 90%+ progression into jobs or self-employment — it connects learning to real economic mobility.

Crucially, Niyo Labs straddles both UK and African markets. This positions it to help the UK close its gender and regional gaps, while also unlocking Africa’s youthful workforce for AI-enabled global demand.

A Call to Action

The restructuring of UK skills policy and the US-UK AI pact must not be treated as neutral bureaucratic or diplomatic milestones. They are fault lines along which inequality could deepen. For women, and especially for African women, the stakes are existential.

But the same shifts also open unprecedented opportunities: new funding, new frameworks, new supply chains. The question is whether women will be systematically included — or systematically left behind.

Niyo Labs proves that inclusive, scalable, AI-aligned training is possible. Governments and investors now face a choice: either double down on infrastructure without people, or channel resources into platforms that ensure women — half the population — are part of the AI economy.

Because if women are excluded, AI will not be progress. It will be regression with faster processors.

The Silent Disruption of Upskilling—and How Niyo Labs Is Leading the Human-Centric AI Revolution

For years, the conversation in learning and development has centered on access. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), bootcamps, and micro-credentials democratised education globally. Although we saw this democratisation, we saw that learning was still not designed for the evolving human in mind. For example, for MOOCs, the completion rates are around 5-15% , micro-credentials focused on certificates and bootcamps although are fantastic accelerators, don’t give the full transformation for humans to evolve with technological revolutions. But today, an even deeper shift has arrived - one that’s so swift, it’s almost invisible. Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t just at the edge of the future: it’s rewriting the present way we learn and upskill and reskill.

AI Is Accelerating the Pace of Work—and Humans Are Struggling to Keep Up

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, businesses expect that by 2030, 86% of organizations will be transformed by AI and other information-processing technologies (Sustainability Magazine). This transformation is nothing short of seismic: the WEF projects 170 million new jobs will be created globally, even as 92 million existing roles could be displaced (Sustainability Magazine, AI Magazine).

Further, nearly 40% of workers’ core skills are expected to change or vanish by 2030 (World Economic Forum). Even amid this upheaval, just 50% of workers have engaged in long-term learning strategies, up from 41% in 2023 an encouraging but insufficient response to the accelerating rate of change (World Economic Forum).

This tsunami of change is already reshaping job roles. Today, people are more than twice as likely to acquire AI skills than in 2018 in some fields such as recruiting or healthcare, that number is up nearly sevenfold (World Economic Forum).

Yet the pace remains too slow. A staggering 40% of executives believe their workforce will need to reskill within the next three years due to AI or automation (World Economic Forum). Moreover, 75% of organizations are expected to integrate AI tools into training by 2025, but 67% of executives cite insufficient AI expertise as the top barrier (Soda Magazine).

The result of this leads a silent disruption. We’re no longer just struggling to keep access equitable and now we’re scrambling to keep humanity relevant.

The Unequal Impact of the AI Skills Gap

While AI is reshaping industries worldwide, underrepresented groups - women, global majority groups and young people in africa face a triple disadvantage:

1. Lower baseline access to digital and AI skills

   • According to the WEF, women represent just 29% of STEM workers globally. In AI specifically, female participation is even lower hovering around 22%.

   • In Sub-Saharan Africa, less than 40% of schools have internet access, which means millions of young people start with a systemic digital deficit.

2. Greater vulnerability to automation

   • Jobs disproportionately held by women (e.g., clerical, customer support, routine admin) are also among the most automatable.

   • The ILO has warned that up to 80% of female employment in some regions is at high risk of AI automation.

3. Structural barriers to reskilling

   • Underrepresented workers are more likely to face financial, cultural, or geographic barriers to ongoing training.

   • Even when training is available, bias in AI systems and lack of inclusive curriculum design can limit accessibility and relevance.

Without intentional intervention, AI could deepen the digital divide, reinforcing systemic inequalities in work, pay, and opportunity.

The Silent Disruption No One Is Talking About

The WEF notes that only 50% of workers today engage in proactive, long-term learning. For underrepresented groups, that number is even lower. Meanwhile, the pace of AI skills acquisition has doubled since 2018, meaning early adopters (often already privileged) are pulling further ahead.

This is the silent disruption:

• Knowledge inequality grows faster than knowledge itself.

• Access gaps compound into opportunity gaps.

• The very groups who could benefit most from economic mobility are at risk of being locked out.

Niyo Labs: Building Human-First Upskilling in the Age of AI

At Niyo Labs, we believe humans especially those from underrepresented groups shouldn’t just survive the AI revolution but they must thrive within it. This mission has taken a new level of urgency. That conviction guided our recent AI Agents Webinar, where almost 80 professionals gathered not to debate theory ( although we did a bit of that at the end) , but to build their own AI agents.

During this intimate session, we heard and learned three powerful insights:

1. Learners are anxious, not about AI itself, but about being left behind by its pace.

2. Business leaders are intrigued but uncertain how to integrate AI without losing human nuance and therefore built their first AI agents

3. Creatives see opportunity in AI not competition as when AI is positioned as a co-creator, not a replacer.

That’s where we aim to intervene. Niyo Labs is weaving AI into learning as an evolving companion and co-pilot to do the tasks that should be left with machines so that humans do what we do best, thrive in intuituve skills and skills that boost human connection . We’re designing programs that let people practice with, question, and co-create with AI agents, building real-time fluency rather than theoretical knowledge.

This is why our approach matters:

• Real-time applied AI learning: Not theory, but hands-on practice with AI tools.

• Inclusive design: Curriculum built with women, the global majority, and African learners in mind.

• AI fluency plus human strengths: Creativity, empathy, leadership, and resilience alongside AI literacy.

The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher

If underrepresented groups are left out of AI upskilling, the inequalities of the past will be multiplied in the future. But if they are equipped, they stand to benefit most:

• Women can transition into high-growth digital roles, narrowing gender gaps in pay and leadership.

• African youth the fastest-growing working-age population in the world can leapfrog industrial stages and directly participate in the digital economy.

• Minorities can harness AI to build businesses, reshape industries, and rewrite narratives.

As the WEF itself stresses, “AI will not replace people but people who use AI will replace those who don’t.” The question is: who gets the chance to learn?

Why This Matters—Backed by Insights and Evidence

Let’s revisit the data:

• The WEF’s projections show huge job churn both risk and opportunity making upskilling not optional, but existential (Sustainability Magazine, AI Magazine).

• Skill volatility is high: nearly 40% of our core capabilities will be disrupted by 2030 (World Economic Forum).

• Upskilling uptake is still slow. Only half of workers are engaging in proactive learning even though employers expect mass reskilling (World Economic Forum).

• AI literacy is still nascent, with an explosion of interest but persistent barriers across sectors (World Economic Forum, Soda Magazine).

But here’s where optimism lies: Human skills remain central. The WEF emphasises that alongside AI literacy traits like creativity, flexibility, resilience, and lifelong learning are rising in importance (World Economic Forum).

This is the arena where Niyo Labs plays: teaching AI literacy within a myriad of technical and professional high impact skills , knitting together AI capability and human strengths. We’re reframing upskilling as a practice of co-evolution to ensure people especially women do not have to play catch-up

What’s Next? Niyo Labs’ Human-First Roadmap

• Micro-moment learning with AI agents: Short, interactive modules where learners can learn with a friend or learn with AI in real-time, applying and building real projects and not just memorising to pass an exam for a certificate.

• Soft-skill augmentation: Embedding creativity, empathy, critical thinking alongside AI tools because humans should define purpose, not AI, and that’s why programmes like the shebuilds programme in our platform make so much of a difference.

• Feedback loop building: Encouraging learners to share reflections and questions, helping us adapt course design to real needs.

• Scaling with intention: Building pathways online, workplace, community that reach beyond the early adopters to diverse populations in a gamified manner where learners earn points as they take on a practical learning journey

Closing Thoughts

The world may be talking about AI, but no one’s talking enough about how humans keep pace. The silent disruption isn’t coming it’s here.

At Niyo Labs, we’re committed to making sure that people don’t just learn about AI they learn with AI, at the speed of change, on their own terms. The AI revolution isn’t one to fear, but one to co-author.

If you would like to move from watching the revoution, join Niyo Labs, the best community learning platform that transforms your career and building journey.

The Weight of Inherited Destiny in Leadership.

Rest is the best operating model of carrying the weight of destiny.

A few days ago, I was awakened at 3am with the weight of my calling and destiny in front of me and was confronted by God to choose what to do with it. This encounter triggered so much .

Here is what I am still learning from that encounter.

In business and in life, destiny doesn’t always arrive as a clean slate.

Often, it comes wrapped in history of unfinished visions, abandoned projects, and the silent weight of what those before us could not complete. We inherit more than opportunity; we inherit responsibility.

There are days when this weight feels like an honour.

To carry forward a vision my forefathers and others could not finish,

to take the torch that slipped from their hands and lift it higher

this is no small privilege.

And yet, the honour is not without grief.

Because in leadership, how I carry that weight matters.

If I rise, it creates momentum for those who will follow.

If I stumble, if I neglect the responsibility,

my missteps echo forward, shaping the inheritance of the next generation.

This is the paradox of legacy:

to lead is to build not only for yourself,

but for those whose names you may never know ( how painful).

The danger for many leaders is to believe they must shoulder this alone.

But business, like destiny, is not meant to be dragged forward by sheer willpower.

It is sustained by trust- trust in the process, trust in people, trust in the vision, and above all, trust in God who wastes nothing ( even the failures you made).

Carrying the weight of destiny in business is not just about striving harder.

It is also an invitation to be.

To pause, to sit with the discomfort of responsibility,

to acknowledge both the pressure and the privilege of leadership.

Rest is not weakness, it is strategy for perspective, it is a chance to fuel the human that drives the million pound machine.

It is where clarity sharpens and resilience is forged.

When we embrace both the honour and the grief,

we carry legacy with integrity.

We transform the weight into momentum,

turn unfinished dreams into fulfilled visions,

and create enterprises that outlive us.

In the end, this is what true leadership is:

not the relentless pressure to succeed at all costs,

but the courage to trust, to rest, and to build faithfully

knowing the decisions we make today

become the foundations for generations to stand on tomorrow.

But… It comes at a painful cost.

Give time a chance: The silent partner in growth

In a world obsessed with speed, “give time a chance” sounds almost countercultural. We celebrate quick wins, overnight success, and fast growth but often forget that time is not just a background element. Time is a revealer. A refiner. A truth-teller.

Time always tells.

It tells in business. The companies that boom overnight are exciting, but the ones that last those are the ones built with time in mind. Time exposes shaky foundations, reveals misaligned values, and tests whether a business model is truly sustainable. Likewise, time rewards consistency, clarity, and quiet diligence. It’s why the businesses that compound slowly often grow deeper roots and greater resilience.

Time tells in people. You can meet someone once and be impressed, inspired even but it’s time that unveils character. Time exposes whether someone’s leadership is performative or principled and whether their growth is fake or true . It also reveals whether they’re committed to the long haul, or just passing through.

It tells in companies too. The sheen of a great brand, a viral launch, or bold positioning is never enough. Time will reveal whether culture is healthy or toxic. Whether innovation is real or reactive. Whether vision is baked into the DNA or simply a pitch deck performance.

That’s why we must respect time; in the moment, in history, and in the uncertainty of the future.

Respect time in the moment: Understand that the present is the seedbed of the future. What seems small and unnoticeable now through an idea, a habit, a conversation may be the very thing time will magnify. Be mindful. Be diligent. Be intentional with every hour.

Respect time in history: Look back, see the patterns, the signs, the stories of those who walked the road before you. Time holds memory and it holds lessons that, if honoured, can help you avoid cycles, refine your thinking, and build wiser.

Respect time in its uncertain future: The future is not promised, yet it is shaped by what we do today. That tension is not meant to scare us, but to keep us humble. To remind us that control is an illusion, but preparation is wisdom. Faith, hope, and strategy—those are the tools we can carry forward into time's unknown.

So pause and ask yourself:

• What am I rushing through that actually needs more time?

• What am I building today that I want time to tell well tomorrow?

• What am I learning from the past that can help me be a better steward of time now?

Because in the end, everything worth building is revealed over time.

Give it a chance.

This is a reminder to me and to anyone else who needs it.

Buhari, the Burden of Power, and… maybe the Kindness We Never Saw.

Being a political leader often means making peace with being hated — sometimes by an entire nation.
Since Former President Buhari passed on July 13, 2025, I’ve grappled with the deep contradictions of his eight-year tenure. On one hand, a stern disciplinarian and anti-corruption crusader; on the other, an authority whose policies spawned pain and disillusionment for many. I’ve found myself reflecting more deeply than I ever expected. Like many Nigerians, I’ve had my share of disappointment, and scepticism about his leadership ( Since my nuance on leadership has changed, I even say that very lightly… This is for another blogpost). But watching his daughter’s BBC tribute full of tenderness and admiration, it unearthed a different question for me:

How can someone so kind in private lead with such harshness in public?

I’m not writing this to glorify a presidency that left so many in pain. I remember the crushing inflation, the broken promises, the silence during #EndSARS that blew up around the world in which I led the west midlands protest. The closed borders that hurt everyday businesses more than smugglers. I, too, from diaspora watched as the naira collapsed, as youth unemployment soared, and as we seemed to move further from economic dignity.

Photo Credit: Adejuwon Adesope

But I also can’t ignore the possibility that Buhari may have seen his leadership not as a popularity contest but as a kind of sacrifice. Some Nigerians living in Nigeria may call me naiive but this is where I am at.

A President of Stark Contradictions

Let’s be honest: Buhari’s tenure from 2015 to 2023 was rough. We had two recessions, record inflation and public debt ballooning from ₦12 trillion to over ₦77 trillion, unemployment hitting 33%, the currency plummeting ( Good old ₦250-£1 days) , and insecurity that never really let up. Boko Haram still haunted the north, banditry spread and fear became rampant in the country and you could argue this caused national fatigue and mass migration begun.

His policies, while often well-intentioned, sometimes felt detached from the real Nigerian experience. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) saved trillions, yes. But to the woman selling tomatoes in Ojuelegba, or the fresh graduate hustling for a tech job in Yaba, those savings didn’t buy bread.

Even Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, though symbolically powerful, often felt selective. His silence during the Lekki Toll Gate shootings will forever be a stain many Nigerians cannot forgive.

If we were to get even more deep into the policies we will find some failures too deep to ignore

Failures That Shaped Daily Life for Millions

1. Cabinet delays & missteps: For five months, critical governance was stalled. The poorly-chosen cabinet earned Buhari the nickname “Baba Go Slow”; in some cases, deceased figures were even appointed to boards The GuardianAl Jazeera.

2. Economic crises two recessions: Nigeria endured severe stagflation in 2016 and again in 2020, triggered by oil price collapse, delayed policies, and the COVID‑19 pandemic. Growth remained feeble, real income fell, and poverty deepened .

3. Debt explosion & inflation: From ₦42 trillion in 2015 to ₦77 trillion in 2023, public debt nearly doubled. Debt servicing ratios soared from 29% to 96% of revenue. Meanwhile, inflation climbed from 8.7% to over 22% and unemployment from under 8% to over 33% The Budgit Foundation+1Western Post+1.

4. Currency and forex mismanagement: Multiple exchange-rate regimes, strict capital controls, and policies like land border closures strained trade, sparked food inflation, and dampened foreign investment. The naira lost approximately 70% of its value against the dollar Western Post+2Al Jazeera+2African Eye Report+2.

5. Security failures and repression: Despite promises to defeat Boko Haram and end banditry, violence persisted. His government’s handling of the EndSARS protests in 2020 drew backlash when soldiers killed at least twelve protesters. Buhari’s administration also banned Twitter (X) for seven months, raising human rights concerns African Leadership Magazine+3AP News+3The Portfolio Magazine+3.

6. Selective anti-corruption: Critics allege Buhari’s anti-graft campaign disproportionately targeted political opponents, while corruption continued unabated in some elite circles Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3African Leadership Magazine+3.

7. Border closure fallout: The 2019 land border closure aimed to curb smuggling and protect local producers but instead raised food costs and breached Nigeria’s promises under the African Continental Free Trade Area and ECOWAS Al Jazeera.

On Reddit, many Nigerians expressed frustration with the harsh economic fallout:

“Devaluation just widened the gap between the rich and everyone else… Without wage adjustments… savings wiped out” Al JazeeraReddit.
“Nigeria Under Buhari has a score of 24 [in Corruption Perception Index]; ironically, the score was better at 26 in 2015” thetimes.co.uk+4Reddit+4Reddit+4.

And yet, there was more to the story.

The Things We Didn’t See (Or Didn’t Want To)

It’s easy to focus only on what went wrong. But Buhari also did things that no other politician before him could, or would do:

• He pushed forward Nigeria’s most ambitious infrastructure drive in decades. The Lagos–Ibadan railway and launched major road, bridge, and rail projects including the Abuja–Kaduna rail and the Second Niger Bridge

• He brought discipline to public finance through the TSA and IPPIS systems, which reportedly saved taxpayers roughly ₦5.2 trillion by early 2017

• He made reclaiming stolen public assets central to his presidency - his government recovered over USD 300 million linked to the Abacha era, and prosecuted over 600 public figures including judges and military chiefs. This is no small feat in a country where corruption often hides in plain sight.

• Buhari ratified the Paris Agreement in 2017 and signed climate legislation in 2021; later, he unveiled Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan aimed at net-zero emissions by 2060- This was bold for the time if you ask me.

These weren’t shiny headlines, but they were structural moves what I now call the dirty work of nation-building. The kind of thankless, invisible labour that rarely wins hearts but can, if done right can shift futures. Maybe what Tinubu seems to be moving started with Buhari’s moves.

A Martyr or a Mistake?

There’s a line I keep coming back to: What if Buhari had to be the one who took the fall so that something more innovative, more people-centred, could come after him?

I’m not trying to redeem his legacy. I still believe he failed in many ways. His style of governance often felt cold and distant. His refusal to adapt, his slowness to act, and his lack of emotional intelligence in moments of national trauma left scars.

But I also think he may have chosen the burden of being misunderstood. Of holding the line in places others were too afraid to touch. Perhaps he believed that posterity would one day understand. That a nation built on sentiment and corruption needed a reset, even if the surgery was painful.

So, What Do We Do With His Legacy?

We hold both truths.

We mourn the opportunities lost and acknowledge the systems he helped reset.
We critique the suffering his policies caused and reflect on the foundations he laid.
We wrestle with how someone so reportedly kind in private could lead with such public ruthlessness.

That’s the paradox of power. And that’s Nigeria, a country constantly caught between its potential and its pain.

Buhari wasn’t the saviour many hoped for. But maybe, just maybe, he was the reluctant soldier doing the work no one wanted to do, hoping others would one day build on it with more heart, more grace, and more empathy.

And maybe, that's the hardest kind of leadership of all.

RIP President Muhammadu Buhari