Inside Nigeria’s Quiet IT Backbone: How Technical Specialists Are Powering the Country’s Industrial Uptime

Foluke Ekundayo

Nigeria’s digital transformation isn’t just being led by startup founders or software developers. A less visible—but no less critical—shift is happening within its industrial corridors, where information technology professionals are working tirelessly to modernize enterprise operations and reduce system failures.

From manufacturing facilities to logistics operations, IT support professionals are keeping the country’s production lines, networks, and communications infrastructure running efficiently. Among this emerging cohort is Foluke Ekundayo, a technical support and systems specialist who served as a frontline contributor at Nestlé Nigeria from 2010 through 2014.

“In environments where every second counts, your job is to make sure that technology helps people—not slows them down,” Ekundayo told Daily Times in a recent interview.

Enterprise IT from the Factory Floor

Ekundayo’s role at Nestlé Nigeria offered an uncommon perspective: managing and maintaining IT systems in high-demand, time-sensitive industrial environments. She joined the company as an IT Support Specialist, where she was responsible for configuring systems, supporting hardware and network reliability, and troubleshooting disruptions affecting dozens of operational staff.

Working across factory floors and regional admin offices, she implemented key support protocols that helped reduce downtime and streamline issue response.

Her core responsibilities included:

* Hardware and software installations for production teams and office staff.
* Diagnosing and resolving issues with laptops, routers, and peripheral devices.
* Maintaining and updating the company’s IT asset inventory.
* Monitoring network faults and contributing to the company-wide zero packet loss.
“When your workstation is down, it doesn’t just affect one person—it slows down an entire team,” she said. “We had to think of support not just as fixing, but as enabling performance.”

Verified Outcomes from 2010–2014

Ekundayo’s work produced measurable impact during her time with Nestlé Nigeria:
20% reduction in PC downtime by 2013 through proactive escalation management.
Full elimination of data packet loss during Q3 2012, a benchmark result for internal communications continuity.
Improved system rollout timelines, especially during internal infrastructure upgrades and regional onboarding of new staff.
Better tracking of over 80 user assets and improved lifecycle management of computers, routers, and software licenses.
Her contributions were particularly appreciated in multi-shift environments where maintaining performance across rotating teams required technical reliability and consistency.

Academic Foundation: Systems and Strategy

Foluke Ekundayo graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Management (Hons) from the University of Ghana in 2014.

Her academic training combined a foundation in programming, systems design, and IT project management with courses in organizational behavior, resource planning, and process strategy.

“My degree taught me that support isn’t just technical—it’s also about designing environments where people can do their best work without interruption,” she noted.

This cross-functional approach helped her navigate the dynamics between technical teams, production staff, and operations managers during her four-year professional tenure prior to graduation.

A Skill Set Anchored in Enterprise Needs

Rather than specializing in software development or programming alone, Ekundayo built her early career around infrastructure support, user experience, and IT service stability. This included experience in:

* Windows OS installation and recovery
* LAN/WAN diagnostics and escalation
* Desktop imaging and setup
* Printer, scanner, and router support
* Asset tagging and usage tracking

Her expertise also extended to support documentation, ticket resolution logs, and basic network configuration—skills that remain essential in enterprise IT support roles today.

Workplace Recognition and Internal Leadership

By the end of her tenure at Nestlé, Ekundayo was increasingly sought for high-responsibility roles, including coordinating rollouts of hardware updates and training junior staff on standard operating procedures for IT issue escalation.

She played a key role during:

* Internal migration to new factory workstations in 2013
* Department-wide IT asset audits during system standardization
* Troubleshooting rollout challenges during infrastructure expansion
“Support work doesn’t make headlines—but without it, even the best strategy won’t function,” she told Daily Times.

Future Goals in Infrastructure Analytics

Even as of early 2015, Ekundayo expressed an interest in moving beyond traditional IT support toward data analytics, user behavior tracking, and predictive system health modeling—early signals of her later interest in machine learning and data-driven optimization.

“I want to help organizations not just fix problems, but anticipate them. That’s where the value lies,” she said.
She has since begun preparing for certification in areas like ITIL, data analytics, and systems lifecycle planning, which would allow her to further align support services with strategic organizational goals.

Local Professionals, Lasting Impact

Foluke Ekundayo’s story is one of many unfolding across Nigeria’s industrial backbone. She represents a generation of IT professionals who operate not in the spotlight, but at the system’s core—ensuring operations remain stable, scalable, and future-ready.

Their work may not be disruptive in the startup sense—but it is absolutely foundational to keeping Nigeria’s production and logistics engines moving forward.

And for a country whose growth depends increasingly on reliable technology, it is the foundation that matters most.