How To Become A Data Analyst in Nigeria as a beginner

What is Data Analysis?

“We are surrounded by data but starved for insights”, Jay Baer.

Data analysis is basically analyzing data and getting insights from it.

Data analysis involves understanding how structured data work, taking a look at past events, spotting specific trends, and then predicting the future based on the information at hand.

There are different stages of data analysis and the main goal is to get useful information that aids in decision making.

See our graduated Data Analysis students 

Learn more about our Data Analysis or Data Science 

Here is the difference between Data Science And Data Analysis

A data scientist creates machine learning models while a data analyst doesn’t.

Like a data scientist, a data analyst makes sense of the data to get insights and needs basic programming skills and a mathematical and statistical background.

Knowledge of data analytics and knowledge of visualization tools is paramount. However, an analyst is not required to have any kind of knowledge in creating predictive machine learning models.

Learn more about the difference between data science and data analysis here

What is Data Analysis Used For?

Data analysts are responsible for gathering, cleaning, and transforming data. Various methods are used to discover useful information from the data gathered.

A data analyst breaks down a complex concept to derive some meaning from it. These valuable insights then help to make informed business decisions.

If a company or business is not going too well and a data analyst is hired, he will get data from their sources. Primary and secondary sources such as customer’s sentiments, location, etc.

He’ll analyze the data spot trends, and get actionable insights. Decisions that will help the business are made and will be presented in the most explainable form.

Data analysis helps businesses understand their target audience better, personalize the customer experience, and make decisions that enhance profits.

Requirements for Becoming A Data Analyst

The requirements for a data analyst differ from company to company but here are some skills every data analyst should have:

Programming: The two major programming languages used by data analysts are R and Python. Python is a dynamic language used for general-purpose programming. Google, Facebook, and Microsoft declared Python as their default AI language. 

Research shows that it is the easiest language to learn.

The documentation and libraries will be beneficial in your data analysis journey. Python libraries such as Scrapy and Beautiful Soup help to scrape data from the web.

R is more of a statistical language. It is used for data mining, manipulating data, visualizing data and statistical analysis.

Both Python and R are in-demand skills. You can always pick a choice and start learning. Dennis Niche said, “the only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.” Have a plan, learn, build projects and ask questions.

Though you don’t need to know a lot of programming like a software engineer you need to have the basic knowledge that is enough to extract meaning from data.

Structured Query Language: SQL is the standard language to query data. Having knowledge of a query language is important. In most organizations, their data is stored in relational databases and SQL is used to query and retrieve data from the databases and work with the data retrieved.

Microsoft Excel: Knowing how to use Microsoft Excel is one of the most important skills you need as a data analyst.  It helps you to analyze the data, spot trends and gain insights.

Visualization Tools: The popular ones are Power Bi and Tableau. Visualization tools provide an easy way to create visual representations of data sets. These visualizations can be used for various purposes such as annual reports, dashboards, sales reports and so on.

Business domain knowledge: As a data analyst, you will help businesses make better decisions. This requirement is not compulsory but it will help in the long run. Some companies always include it in their requirements. You can take an online course on business marketing for data analysts. There are a lot of them available.

Communication Skills: As a data analyst, you need to be able to communicate your insights in a way that even a non-technical person will understand perfectly. This skill is really underrated and we have highly skilled data scientists who find it hard to communicate.  Data storytelling is a very essential skill to have.

Data Analyst Training For Beginners

If you want to learn data analysis from scratch, our training here at Sabi Programmers will be the right one for you. You will be taught by industry experts and get the right in-demand skills to be a sought-after data analyst.

Visit our courses page to get started…

especially if you’ve decided to learn data analysis here in Akure

Meet our students

See more of our students here

See frequently asked questions from our students

Is Data Analysis Easy To Learn?

Learning data analysis from scratch can be quite tasking and more challenging than in other IT fields.

Let’s say it is a combination of easy and difficult. Not to scare you though 🙂 but because the skills expected of you as a data analyst can be highly demanding. I already listed some above.

If you are consistent, you can learn all you need to within a year or less. You don’t need a degree.

The data analysis field requires continuous learning.

Your learning doesn’t stop. You need enough knowledge and you’ll have to keep learning how to use new tools to help you get the data insights.

Can I Learn Data Analysis On My Own? 

You can pick one of the numerous learning resources (PDFs & Videos) that are available to you online and start with those.

Learning data analysis from scratch on your own could be a huge task, but of course, it’s possible! We have a lot of self-taught data analysts. but is best to learn from a tech school who have ex[erience that can put you through better,

How Can I Learn Basic Data Analysis?

You can start by taking online courses. There are thousands of courses available that will teach you data analysis from basis from scratch.

You can also take Python or R courses On Udemy, Udacity, Youtube, etc. You can dedicate a couple of hours a week to learning these required skills.

How Can I Learn Data Analysis For Free?

You can get some free courses online from Udemy, OpenLearn, Coursera, and a lot more. You will learn the fundamentals of data analysis.

 However, you can register for data analysis training online for a token.

You can also join us for your data analysis training in Akure…