The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, at the weekend described the prospect of Nigeria’s march towards attaining 95 percent digital literacy in 2030 based on the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020 – 2030, as bright in view of the growing performance of the ICT sector over the past quarters.
Pantami, who presided over the graduation of participants at a two-week Digital Job Creation Training for the North-East in Gombe, which was facilitated by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, maintained that the target remained feasible as government continues to promote the digital economy’s agenda with total commitment.
He said: “The reason we train citizens is because digital skills are no longer considered a luxury, but necessities required in any business you do. If you want to be successful, you need to have digital skills.
“ICT is not just an independent sector but the key enabler of all other sectors today. It enables opportunities in education, in health, in agriculture, in security, in defence, in manufacturing, in trade, in investment and in industry”, the minister added.
He, therefore, advised the trainees to adopt innovation-driven enterprises and to utilize the training they have received to improve their economic status and make Nigeria a better place.
Pantami further stressed that all stakeholders have to utilise ICT in order to make the country a better place, and personal economic benefits amongst others, and encouraged the participants not to waste their time online but to use the knowledge acquired to make Nigeria a better place and at the same time, derive many economic benefits from it.
He highlighted that recent reports by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) about the performance of each sector of the economy showed that ICT’s contributed 18.44 percent to the economy in Q2 2022, describing the performance as very heart-warming about the prospects of the industry meeting with the expectations of the relevant policies.
The minister recalled that the training had earlier been organized in states including the Federal Capital Territory and assured that it will be conducted in other states nationwide.
The Digital Job Creation Training is a two-week programme targeted at youth desirous of developing and enhancing their ICT skills in order to stimulate growth in the yet-to-be-fully tapped and commercially viable digital economy.
