Dr. Karl Toriola, Managing Director and Chief Executive of MTN Nigeria, delivered the 11th Sigma Public Lecture at the Alumni Multipurpose Hall, University of Ibadan, on the theme “Leveraging Technology & Digital Education for Mass Employment, Wealth Creation and Poverty Alleviation”.

Governor Seyi Makinde served as chairman of the day. The edition was held in honour of Old Chief Dr. Adesola Kazeem Adeduntan, FCIB, FCA, D.Sc.

Toriola's case was that the gap between what Nigerian institutions teach and what the digital economy pays for has become the country's binding constraint on youth employment. Curricula, he argued, must be aligned to the work that actually exists.

He pointed to three obstacles in particular: infrastructure deficits, gaps in digital literacy, and weak coordination between the public and private sectors — each of which, he said, is solvable within a single policy cycle if treated as an economic priority rather than an educational one.

The Sigma Public Lecture was inaugurated in 2000 as an extension of the club's aristocratic ideal of nobility, probity and high endeavour, and has since become the arena where Africa's oldest student organisation puts national questions to the people answering them.

Previous editions have been delivered by Professor Ayo Banjo, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, and by Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON, then Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who spoke in October 2018 on developing the nation through youth employment.