In an effort to strategically implement the federal government digital economy initiative, the CEO of the Halita Digital Skills Academy, Mr. Hussaini Kwaifa, is seeking partnership with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in the area of digital skills training in Abuja to accelerate tech development in Nigeria.
The CEO said the partnership will help re-orient Nigerians on the relevance of digital technology for sustainable social and economic development.
“NITDA is focusing on building a national digital economy, hence the need to develop the digital skills to prepare them for decent work in the future.”
The CEO made this known on Tuesday, February 9, 2021 when he led his team on a courtesy visit to the Director-General, NITDA, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, represented by Dr Collins Agu, Director, Corporate Planning and Strategy, at the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Head Office, Wuye, Abuja.
Mr. Hussaini Kwaifa noted that the Academy would provide the required capacity building and support for NITDA and expressed hope that the collaboration between both parties would enable them to achieve another milestone for national development through the joint promotion of research, development and innovation in Emerging Technologies.
The training which is aimed at equipping Nigerian youths with the necessary digital literacy skills that can facilitate Nigeria’s transition to the Digital Economy. Specific areas of focus for the programme include:
To improve sales of digital enterpreneurs in their new or already existing businesses.
To increase productivity of students and employees at school and work.
To enable creation of contents to promote online businesses especially on social media platforms.
Responding, the Dr Collins Agu, Director, Corporate Planning and Strategy stated that the IT revolution being championed by NITDA was part of the Federal Government’s economy diversification plans to open up another source of income, adding that ICT is the key area to diversify the economy which necessitated the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to expand the mandate of the Ministry of Communications to include Digital Economy.
Dr Collins Agu disclosed that economy diversification is about creating prosperity and not poverty alleviation. ”Most of the interventions arising from importation are just to alleviate poverty; they are not bringing prosperity to the country. We need to look at a lot of value network or chain in the ecosystem that will drive the market for us to produce something locally by annexing the potentials of the emerging technologies,” he submitted.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in line with the digital skills training in Abuja of the pillar the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria, commences the Digital Literacy and Skills Programme for States, tagged the Digital States Programme
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is a Federal Government Agency under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. NITDA was established in April 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Technology Policy as well as coordinate general IT development and regulation in the country.
Specifically, Section 6(a, b, c & m) of the NITDA Act, 2007 mandates NITDA to create a framework for the planning, research, development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices, activities and systems in Nigeria; provide guidelines to facilitate the establishment and maintenance of appropriate infrastructure for information technology and systems application and development in Nigeria for public and private sectors, urban-rural development, the economy and the government; and accelerate internet and intranet penetration in Nigeria and promote sound internet Governance by giving effect to the Second Schedule of the Act.
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