Digital Literacy, Entrepreneurship, key to Nigeria’s Socio-economic growth – NITDA

The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) Kashifu Inuwa, has described the acquisition of digital literacy and entrepreneurship as a relevant key to the nation’s socio-economic growth.

Inuwa stated this in Kano state,North-West Nigeria, during the graduation ceremony of 1,353 beneficiaries of Digital Apprentices by ENGAUSA Global Tech Hub in collaboration with NITDA .

He reiterated NITDA’s readiness in fostering digital literacy and entrepreneurship in order to create job opportunities for the teeming Nigerian youth.

During the graduation, the young Nigerians who enrolled in the program, including street/homeless kids and out-of-school children displayed various talents which they have learnt at the Tech Hub.

They include, Computer Networking, Drone Technology, CCTV Installation and Access Control, Graphics Design, Electric Fencing, Smart Home Automation, Advanced Smart Phones Repairs, among others.

According to the Agency, 30% of the participants totalling 400 are establishing their startups while some of them already have a workforce of 10 employees.

In view of this , the Director General expressed delight at the overall output of the training, stating that it will propel a reduction in unemployment rate and alleviate poverty in the country.

“I am very excited to see this graduation of 1,353 students who participated in the digital literacy programme organised by Engausa in partnership with NITDA. This further showed that we have talent in Nigeria and talent is the human component of the digital technology, therefore, we need to harness the talent for economic prosperity.

“We are graduating them mostly to promote digital literacy and digital job creation, which is part of Federal Government Digital Economy. Out of these 1,353 graduates, about 400 have started their independent busineses, employing others to work under them,” he said.

Inuwa stated that the training of unlettered youths to master the skills of handling Computers and other digital services was a milestone, which was in line with the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024).

He commended the organisers for their effort in translating technology vocabulary to local language to ease understanding, adding that most of the technologically advanced nations like France, Japan, India and China use their local languages to teach their young scientists, thus Nigeria should consider doing so.

While reiterating NITDA’s ambitious target of achieving 95 percent digital literacy, as well as short-term plan of training one million developers in the next 18 months, Inuwa gave 100 smart devices, courtesy of NITDA, to the performing students who have excelled in various digital skills among their peers.

 

Self Reliance

Speaking earlier, the Proprietor of Engausa Digital Literacy, Auwal Ringim
said the event is encouraging the development of skills and ideas from inception to actualisation.

He said the reason why he introduced the training on Programming, Video Editing, Blogging, Graphic Designs, Web Design, and Android development, Social Media Literacy, and Digital Marketing, was to identify natural talents from young persons who have not been to conventional schools to acquire basic digital skill so that they can be self-reliant.

The CEO of ENGAUSA Global Tech Hub, Mustapha Habu Ringim, while making his remark, appreciated the support of NITDA towards the successful completion of the scheme.

He noted that training center has graduated a total of 1,700 trainees since the commencement of the scheme from 2019 till date, adding that the good number of those graduated are entrepreneurs, workers in digital driven firms and renewable energy, while some of them are freelancers in digital technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hauwa Abu