The National Information Technology Development Agency in Nigeria ,(NITDA) has presented laptops to ten outstanding learners of the cohort 2 NITDA-COURSERA Training Programme.
In a statement by NITDA the Acting Director, Digital Literacy and Capacity Building Department, Dr Amina Sambo-Magaji made the presentation, in Abuja Nigeria’s capital.
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Sambo-Magaji, on behalf of the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, presented the laptops to the top ten learners who were the first to successfully complete their professional certification.
She also extended Inuwa’s congratulatory message to the beneficiaries during the November edition of the NITDA-COURSERA familiarisation webinar and commended them for surpassing expectations.
Inuwa expressed delight over thier ability to creatively utilise the knowledge gained during the training and performing excellently.
He noted that the promise of giving laptops as prizes to winners was to encourage healthy competition among the trainees for them to think outside the box.
The NITDA Boss encouraged the beneficiaries to perform optimally in their respective areas of interest, especially as the outcome of the first batch of trainees was far from satisfactory.
He also expressed satisfaction at the innovative ideas birthed by the learners.
“After our first batch, we realised that the competition rate was not very encouraging, so, we looked at different options, brainstormed on possible best option to increase the competition rate and one of them was the concept of giving the laptops which eventually paid off as there were timely and tangible results gotten from learners,”
“Also, we know that having a laptop will support you in actually using it as a tool for job, so, it was more of a double impact” He said .
He reiterated the fact that the youthful population of the country remains one of the key competitive advantages over other nations and as such should be explored and exploited to achieve the Federal Government’s quest of making Nigeria the global talent hub.
“For us to be able to harness the potential of that competitive advantage we have in our youthful population, that is why we are undertaking a number of capacity building initiatives to make sure that Nigerians have access to the global on-demand skills”, Inuwa maintained.
According to Inuwa “most of the beneficiaries completed their professional certification in cybersecurity, data Analytics and digital marketing.”
While presenting the laptops to the ten outstanding learners who completed their NITDA-Coursera courses, the Director General encouraged them not to relent in their efforts to bridge the digital gap.
He also admonished them to come up with indigenous solutions that have global impact, adding that their expected contributions to the tech ecosystem will trigger the needed growth in the industry, the nation’s digital economy, and their general well-being.
Some of the beneficiaries who shared their success stories, thanked NITDA-Coursera for affording them the opportunity to learn on the platform.
Earlier, the Assistant Director, Digital Literacy and Capacity Building Department, NITDA, Dr. Ahmad Yusuf Tambuwal while giving an overview of the NITDA-COURSERA Scholarship Programme said Coursera is one of the world’s top online learning platforms hosting thousands of courses from some of the world’s best universities and tech companies.
The NITDA-Cousera partnership is aimed at achieving some key objectives which include: empowering twenty-four thousand (24,000) Nigerians with digital & developer skills in 3 years, empowering Nigerian citizens with job-ready skills and create a large pool of IT talents for the local and global markets, fostering innovation and supporting start-ups with IT knowledge & skills needed to build real-life solutions.
