The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has applauded Kwara State Government on the commissioning of its e-Library and Edtech Hub projects.
NITDA’s commendation was contained in a message by Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the DG at the marking of United Nations 2022 International Day of Education and the commissioning of Kwara State e-Library and EdTech Hub held in at the State Capital, Ilorin, recently.
Abdullahi who was represented by Mr. Oladejo Olawumi, director, Standards, Guidelines and Frameworks Department of NITDA, said the Agency is always glad and ready to identify with such laudable efforts.
He said that State Government’s approach towards ensuring sustainable development in the Educational sector through the e-Library and Edtech hub projects of Kwara State coupled with striving for a Digital Transformation in the state, is highly commendable because it identifies with three of NITDA’s Seven Strategic Pillars:
“Digital Literacy and Skills, which seeks to enable the development of digital skills of Nigerians across different works of life as well as support the goal of achieving a 95% digital literacy level in the next ten years;
“Digital Transformation, which seeks to provide a robust digital platform to drive digitalization processes in the Nigerian digital economy; and
“Digital Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which seeks to enable Micro, small, medium and innovation-driven enterprises to thrive. We expect that the outcome of this pillar will create opportunities for job creation.
“All these key into the present administration’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), and shows we are all harnessing our resources towards securing the Future of Education by Closing the digital gaps as well captured in today’s theme.
“NITDA commends your initiative of partnering with the Kwara State government to build e-Libraries across the sixteen Local Government Areas of the State. This again buttresses the fact that we are all aligned towards the same national agenda.
“In recent years, NITDA has set up twenty-seven developmental projects made up of digital capacity building centres, digital capacity training centres, and digital economy centres in schools and local government areas of Kwara State.
“The interventions were all equipped with information technology facilities, internet provision, power back-up and e-learning facilities.
“In addition, we are currently in the process of setting up three digital economy training centres. Your effort, I must say, has challenged us in NITDA to especially increase the developmental initiatives in Kwara State as we can see evident commitment towards the sustainability of such projects.
Abdullahi said that NITDA, as a regulatory and developmental Agency, believes strongly that innovations like this that accommodate the common man and woman into the global community of learning via digital technology are coming at the right time of economic transformation.
“Therefore, we stand a great chance of building a society of intellectuals where greater emphasis is on citizenship, and their effective readiness to compete on the same scale with their counterparts nationally and globally.
“As NITDA’s contribution to this unique initiative, I wish to assure you that NITDA will forge linkages, collaborations and partnerships towards the sustainability of this program for the good people of Kwara State.
Abdullahi appealed for the judicious usage of the e-Library and Edtech Hub facilities by the beneficiaries, stressing that the knowledge acquired should be used to improve and uplift the educational challenges of Kwara State and Nigeria at large for sustainable development.
“This is imperative because we have a duty to improve the standard of education of our people in order to move our developing economies to greater heights”, the NITDA boss said.
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