As part of its strategic move to ensure Nigeria achieves 95 percent digital literacy by the year 2030, Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has described the acquisition of digital literacy and entrepreneurship as key to the nation’s socio-economic drive as he lays emphasis on NITDA’s readiness in fostering digital literacy and entrepreneurship in order to create job opportunities for the teeming Nigerian youth.
Inuwa said this on Sunday during the graduation ceremony of 1,353 beneficiaries of by ENGAUSA Global Tech Hub in collaboration with (NITDA).
During the graduation, young Nigerians including Almajiris and out-of-school children displayed various talents which they have learnt at the ENGAUSA Global Tech Hub especially in Computer Networking, Drone Technology, CCTV Installation & Access Control, Graphics Design, Electric Fencing, Smart Home Automation, Advanced Smart Phones Repairs, etc.
Inuwa stated that the training of unlettered youths to master skills of handling Computers and other digital services is a milestone, which he said is 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).
With 30% of the participants totalling 400 of them establishing their startups while some of them already have a workforce of 10 employees, the DG expressed his 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.
The DG 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 mother tongues 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.
Speaking earlier, Engineer Auwal Ringim, the Proprietor of Engausa Digital Literacy 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, is 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.
Engineer Mustapha Habu Ringim, the CEO of ENGAUSA Global Tech Hub, while making his remark, appreciated the support of NITDA towards the successful completion of the scheme.
He noted that his organisation has achieved a lot by graduating the total number of 1,700 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.
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