The Federal Government has said it is creating an enabling environment to unlock opportunities in the digital skills market in Sub-Saharan Africa, valued at $130 billion.
Director General, National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Dr Olusola Odusanya, who stated this at the ongoing 8th Technology and Innovation Expo in Abuja, said the country’s industrial growth and technology advancement was imminent and inevitable.
According to International Finance Corporation, 28 million jobs in Nigeria and 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030 in a market valued at $130 billion.
Addressing participants at the expo, Odusanya said government had come up with NACETEM Academy that would train people on digital and other skills.
NACETEM chief executive said the academy would provide Nigeria with an innovation finishing school for both public and private sectors of the national economy, stressing that “digital economy is Nigeria’s new oil.”
He said: “The industrial growth and technological advancement of Nigeria is imminent and inevitable. NACETEM Academy has arrayed a growing and significant bouquet of self-paced international skills certification courses that would help these digital natives to excel in a digital economy which promises to be Nigeria’s new oil.”
ALSO, the presidency has adopted strategies aimed at empowering no fewer than five million Nigerians with various artisanal skills yearly.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurial Education, Abiola Arogundade, during an interactive session with reporters in Abuja, explained that the initiative aimed at cutting down the 133 million Nigerians living below the poverty line.
She explained that the initiative, which entails collaboration with various countries, educational and financial institutions in the country, would enable beneficiaries acquire artisanal skills that would not make them self-reliant and boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Arogundade said her outfit had been ticked to train no fewer than 500 inmates in each of the correctional centres spread across the country in line with the objective.
She said: “We’ve also started training in the correctional centres. We launched the scheme in Kuje. We took few members from my office to the correctional centre to do an audit of the needs of the inmates. I’m happy to announce that we started conducting the assessment and auditing of the trainees.
“They will not be left behind. It’s the same curriculum that we have and we are partnering with global bodies to make sure that any skill you acquire in Nigeria is going to be recognised worldwide and we are happy to also announce that we have secured it for every single person in training.”
