Tech4Dev, FCDO, NITDA launch N150m digital challenge
The Federal Government has expressed its determination to position Nigeria as a digital talent exporter and to ensure that the country becomes a leader in the digital space.
This was as Technology for Social Change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev), in partnership with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) launched N150 million DigitalforAllChallenge, which is Africa’s largest digital skill competition, designed to reward self-development and encourage the acquisition and use of digital skills through competitive incentives.
The challenge is to tackle Nigeria’s digital skills gap and empower two million Nigerians with basic and intermediate digital skills, while offering participants the chance to win cash and other prizes.
Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi, at the launch of DigitalforAllChallenge, yesterday, in Abuja, noted that there was a huge talent deficit globally, and that Nigeria could bridge that gap by positioning itself appropriately. He added: “That is why we have so many initiatives around talent building.”
The minister launched the three million tech talents in November last year. We have started training 30,000 Nigerians. We have so far trained 8,000 Nigerians on different skills in demand. We launched another cohort yesterday and we are inviting Nigerians to participate. Our target is to have three million tech talents in Nigeria, so that 1.5 million can serve the local market and we can place 1.5 million on the global value chain. So, you can live in Nigeria and work remotely for any country.”
According to the NITDA boss, the government wants everyone to be digitally-visible. It is implementing a lot of interventions across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), so that when people leave school, they can go to the innovation hubs to incubate and accelerate their ideas.
The founder of Tech4Dev, Joel Ogunsola, explained that “DigitalforAllChallenge is an inclusion strategy to ensure that every citizen understands and appreciates the role technology plays in building a strong economy.”
He noted that the firm was giving out N150 million cash to the winners, noting the three different categories to include basic education category, youth category and civil service category.
Deputy High Commissioner, FCDO, Mrs Gill Lever, expressed the United Kingdom (UK) government’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s digital sector as well as promote inclusive partnerships and digital growth to foster sustainable development.
