MTN Foundation launches Digital Skills Academy
Federal Government has stated its determination to raise a new generation of technological workforce that will drive development.

Speaking at the launch of MTN Foundation Digital Skills Academy, yesterday, in Abuja, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, said the administration would position Nigeria as the next exporter of technical talents.

The Digital Skills Academy is a free, tech-driven learning platform, designed to equip Nigerians with digital and financial skills for the modern economy and also to tackle Nigeria’s growing youth unemployment crisis.

Bosun stated that President Bola Tinubu intended to deepen the economy and provide job opportunities for Nigerians.

He said: “This is why at the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, we have also prioritised building capacity through the three million technical talent programme, which is the largest of its sort worldwide. The world is becoming a lot more complex that there is no economy in the world today that can actually drive economic prosperity without also investing in its own complexity; and there is no society that can become complex when your citizens cannot interact with technology.”

The minster observed that the MTN Digital Skills Academy would not only raise digital literacy, but also broaden the possibilities for youths in Nigeria, including the opportunity for young people to launch their technology careers, start their own technology businesses and eventually also solve the challenges that we all face in the country or the world.

In his remarks, the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, described the platform as a “timely and practical intervention” in the face of a youth unemployment rate of 6.5 per cent, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“Our young people need more than degrees, they need skills. This partnership with MTN Foundation shows how public-private collaboration can provide scalable solutions,” the minister said.

In his remarks, the Executive Director of MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya, observed that with over six per cent youth unemployment and over 18.3 million out-of-school children, Nigeria faced a pressing need to close the digital skills gap, adding that the academy responded directly to this challenge by offering free, self-paced courses and certifications in high-demand areas such as data analysis, software engineering, digital marketing, and project management.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Chairman, MTN Nigeria Foundation, Mosun Belo-Olusoga, noted that over the past two decades, the MTN Foundation had made significant investments in developing Nigeria’s educational infrastructure.

Olusoga, who was represented by the Director of the MTN Foundation, Mr Simon Ahanonu, noted that the academy was a transformative digital learning platform designed to empower millions of Nigerians with access to digital and financial skills for the 21st-century economy.