Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in a bid to grow the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 50%, has embarked on digital literacy training of 800 women who in turn will train other women.
The training’s pilot scheme, which draws participants from parts of Nigeria, will enable women to be part of the “GIG” economy. Which will enable them to earn money through part-time online jobs.
The Director General NITDA, Kachifu Inuwa speaking at the closing ceremony of the training of 200 women in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, said the nation plans to achieve 95% digital literacy by 2030 and the training was in collaboration with the world bank.
He said “If we can achieve gender equality and gender parity we can add to the Nigerian GDP, two hundred twenty nine billion (50%), by 2025.”
According to Inuwa, “Our major target is to achieve ninety five percent (95%), digital literacy by twenty thirty (2030), but with this partnership with World Bank the target is eight hundred (800), so we started with these two hundred (200), and we will continue till we achieve eight hundred. And this is a pilot scheme which is part of the implementation of the National Digital Skills strategy.
The NITDA Boss explained the government was woking to position Nigeria to become the global Challenge factory.
“This is because looking at the talent globally according to… research, by 2030, there will be 85 million talent deficit globally which you resolve to $8.5 trillion annual revenue.
“So within our mandate implementation of the National Digital Economy policy and strategy, we are working on so many initiatives one of them is the national digital skills Strategy which the World Bank has keyed in as one of the implementation partners.”
He said that the country is also working to bridge gender divide in digital literacy.
In his remarks, CEO, Natview Technology, Mr Nuradeen Maidoki who is implementing the programme on behalf of the World Bank said, “we have partnered with World Bank to deliver digital competency accross Africa and we look forward to deepening this partnership with WBG and NITDA.”
Maidoki said initiative will create a pipeline of highly skilled female technologists who can contribute to innovation and growth in Nigeria’s technology industry.
“We believe that by empowering young women with digital skills, we can create a more inclusive and diverse technology industry that reflects the richness and diversity of our society,” he said.
The pilot launch focuses on training 200 women around digital content creation and marketing while in the future, an additional 600 young women will be integrated from four northern Nigerian states ;Borno, Gombe, Kano, Zamfara.
Some of the participants who reacted were very happy for the opportunity given them to learn how to make money online without leaving their homes
