3MTT: Nigeria to announce beneficiaries as applications exceed one million

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, said the government will announce its next actions including revealing the first set of beneficiaries as the applications for 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program crossed the one million mark.

READ ALSO: Nigeria receives over 550,000 applications for technical talent program

Unveiled in October to build Nigeria’s tech talent pool, the ministry is working closely with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to execute 3MTT and design around a multi-stakeholders participation.

According to Tijani, the one million milestone underscores significant interests by a broad spectrum of Nigerians to ensure the success of the 3MTT program. They include the targeted fellows, training providers, community partners, and placement organisations.

He said about 18,644 companies have applied as service providers while about 1,407 applications have been received from potential partners indicating the acceptance of the initiative by the private sector as being able to transform Nigeria’s skill and labour market.

One of the early supporters of the 3MTT program is IHS Telecom. The telecom company inked a N1 billion funding commitment with the federal government in addition to committing to financially sustain 37 dedicated learning community managers at different locations over the next three years.

The implementation plan for phase one of the program is targeting 30,000 trainees; 2,040 will be selected from Lagos followed by Kano State with 1,628 trainees as the second largest beneficiary. Rivers State takes the third spot with 1,450 beneficiaries. All other states will have less than 1,000 trainees to make up the first 30,000 beneficiaries.

This phase phase is structured on the ministry’s “1%-10%-100%” implementation model, beginning with training of an initial 30,000 technical talents, or 1% of the program’s overall target before moving to 10% (300, 000) and then 100% (three millions).

According to Tijani, the 3MTT initiative is “targeted at generating a pipeline of technical talent across Nigeria” in line with the Renewed Hope agenda of the current administration.

The Minister said that “As part of our plans to train 3 million technical talent by 2027, I’m excited to launch the 3MTT programme targeted at generating a pipeline of technical talent across Nigeria. The programme is a key part of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy plans to achieve our objective of becoming a net exporter of talent and significantly grow our digital economy, he added.

The first phase covers technology applications and not necessarily tech creation. This training will focus on Data Analysis and Visualization, Project Management Software, Digital Marketing, Cloud Platforms Navigation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Management, Accounting Software, Graphics Design, and UX/UI Design, among several others.

Overall, the 3MTT program will skill up three million Nigerians across a portfolio of training suites that include:

•Software Development

•UI/UX Design

•Data Analysis & Visualisation

•Quality Assurance

•Product Management

•Data Science

•Animation

•AI / Machine Learning

•Cybersecurity

•Game Development

•Cloud Computing

•Dev Ops