Nigeria to Incorporate Digital Literacy in Education Curriculum

The Nigerian Government is to incorporate digital literacy in the Education Curriculum to accelerate and achieve a 70 percent digital literacy drive by 2027.

This was disclosed by the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa at a media party on Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria.

Mr. Kashifu while highlighting NITDA’s, Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (2024-2027) said that one of the initiatives of the agency is for the Federal Ministry of Education to include digital literacy in the nation’s education curriculum.

“We are working with the Ministry of Education to review the curriculum across the formal education, from nursery to university so that we can infuse digital literacy in our formal education and by doing that, we can empower Nigerians to have digital skills before graduating.”

According to the Director General, “We are also conceptualising other initiatives like we will unveil the Digital Literacy for All Initiative very soon which will educate Nigerians outside the formal education and have access to quality digital content so that they have the knowledge to navigate around digital technology and digital economy.”

 He said that one of the eight strategic pillars is to foster digital literacy and cultivate talents.

“To achieve this goal, we need to promote digital literacy and we developed the National Digital Literacy Framework which has an ambitious target of achieving 95 percent digital literacy by 2030 and we have a mid-term target of achieving 70 percent by 2027”.

He also noted that women, children and people with special needs will not be left out in the digital literacy drive.

“We have other initiatives targeting women, children and people with special needs, so we can carry everyone to achieve that 95 percent digital literacy.

The NITDA Boss said the Nigerian government will train over three million youths in the twelve most highly sought-after tech skills to become a major outsourcing country to the world.

“Apart from digital literacy, we are going beyond that to digital sovereignty, so that we can develop all our digital innovation in-country.

 “Therefore, we conducted a skills gap assessment to identify skills in high demand locally and globally, and based on that, we have identified 12 tech skills in high demand and we used that to design the 3 Million Tech Talent initiative which is to train 3 million Nigerians on those 12 identified tech talents in high demand.

 “The idea is that when we train them, some will be able to serve the local market and some leave Nigeria to get jobs elsewhere for brain export, not brain drain” the NITDA Boss stated

Inuwa explained that just as India currently dominates the tech world, Nigeria can also do the same.

“India started brain export about 20 years ago and today, almost 25 percent of sea-level executives in big techs are Indians and they have dominated the global technology ecosystem.

 “So in Nigeria, we believe we can do the same and we have even more competitive advantage than India, we have a younger population, a fast-growing population, better accent than India, better time zone, so if we position ourselves, we can beat India in technology.”

Quoting research by Price Water House Cooper (PWC), He said, ”To validate this, PWC also did research called, “Nigerian Brain Export: The Optimum Path to Developing Nigerian Economy”. So it is not a brain drain, if you train people and they leave the country, they will go and get more network, and experience, and come back or connect back and transfer knowledge that can help the local ecosystem to grow.

He affirmed that “NITDA as a critical agency under the ministry; we crafted our Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan which is a comprehensive document that reflects our commitment to uplifting Nigeria to a premier status in the global digital economy by harnessing the potential of innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Inuwa further explained NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan 2.0 (SRAP 2024-2027), which focuses on eight pillars. These pillars include fostering digital literacy and talent development, building a robust technology research ecosystem, strengthening policy and legal frameworks, promoting inclusive access to digital infrastructure, and enhancing cybersecurity and digital trust.

He added the plan aims to nurture an innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem, forge strategic partnerships, and cultivate a vibrant organizational culture with an agile workforce.

Dominica Nwabufo