This assurance was made by Kashifu Inuwa, the NITDA’s Director-General at the just concluded five days training and empowerment program on Digital Skills and Entrepreneurship program organized for People Living With Disabilities, (PLWD), the South-South edition which was held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The NITDA boss who was represented at the closing ceremony by Aristotle Onumo, the Acting Director, Corporate Planning and Strategy, maintained that empowering differently able people in our society would promote digital inclusion.

While describing digital transformation as one of the panaceas to the mirage of problems confronting the nation, Inuwa maintained that training and empowering the PLWD is part of the initiatives to lift Nigerians out of poverty, hence the approval of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, NDEPS, by president Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

He said the training and empowerment for the “differently able” in our society are to make them financially independent and close the digital divide created by their conditions.

He further states that; “the empowerment program is one of the many opportunities given to Nigerians towards the implementation of the NDEPS agenda.

This program also speaks to three pillars of NITDA’s Strategic RoadMap and Action Plan, SRAP 2021-2024, which are Digital Transformation, Digital Inclusion, and Digital Literacy and Skills, all of which were designed to make Nigeria a sustainable digital economy.”

“Through the training, NITDA has been able to provide opportunities for participants to acquire the ability to use digital technology to create an enterprise that would culminate into wealth creation”, he said.

Inuwa, while encouraging the beneficiaries of the empowerment program to continue to engage in personal development which would aid the increase of their productivity added that they should return to their various communities and transfer the knowledge to others.

The Director-General affirmed the NITDA’s continual inclusion of PLWD in all its initiatives adding that attaining a digitally inclusive society requires collaborative efforts from all stakeholders.

While encouraging the PLWDs to be more industrious, Inuwa quoted Dr. Ashi Mary Magdalene of the Department of the Special Education University of Calabar who posits that “no matter how disabled anyone is, they should not feel sorry for themselves. The disabled are not special, just a little different.”

The lead, Technical and Operations, Rivers State ICT Department, Mr. Austin Dimkpa who represented the State government at the closing ceremony remarked that the empowerment program provides an opportunity for the beneficiaries to join the league of the financially stable people in the world adding that the 10 richest people in the world are in the Information Technology sector.

While expressing his profound appreciation to NITDA for training and empowering the PLWDs in Rivers State with computers and IT working tools, he advised beneficiaries to make judicious use of the tools to better their lots and reduce their reliance on other people.

Kashifu Inuwa, the director-general of NITDA, made this assertion while receiving the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons With Disabilities, NCPWD, James Lalu, and his team on a courtesy visit to the Agency’s headquarters in Abuja.

Inuwa ostensibly agreed with the description of the Executive Secretary, NCPWD that President Muhammed Buhari, is the friendliest PLWD President since the amalgamation of the nation in 1914, haven passed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.

The Director-General assured his visitors of NITDA’s continual inclusion of PWD in all its initiatives with a special training session specifically targeted at equipping them with necessary tools, knowledge, and skills on digital transformation.

According to Inuwa, “building a digitally inclusive community requires participation and support from all stakeholders, and partnership with the NCPWD would accelerate the campaign of promoting digital inclusion. We can work together to design special initiatives that would expand the impact of the two organisations.”

“We can organise a challenge where people would come up with ideas to create a disability-friendly application,” this Inuwa added, would be an enabler that would assist in optimizing the best technology to meet identified objectives.”

“Your commission can work towards building a special IT hub while NITDA provides the technical know-how and necessary tools,” suggested Inuwa.

He informed the team that the Agency has opened a link where PLWDs in South-South Zone can register for a five-day empowerment program on digital skills and entrepreneurship at Port Harcourt from the 24th till 28th January 2022.

While responding, the Executive Secretary, James Lalu, haven commended NITDA for its efforts in promoting digital inclusion among PWDs saying, the PWD commission prays for extension of training periods, curriculum, the need for experts and training facilitators at the eLearning Training Centre to work in collaboration with the aim of developing a robust website.

The meeting finally agreed on setting up a team comprising staff of both organisations to work out modalities and possible areas of collaboration.