By Ibiyemi Mathew
The Federal Government in line with its commitment to fully digitize economic operations has organized a digital job creation training in five states of the federation.
The first phase of the training organized by the ministry of Communications and Digital economy held simultaneously on the 12th of March in five states of the country, namely Oyo, Ogun, Katsina, Jigawa and Imo.
According to the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, “The Digital Job Creation Programme is in line Digital Nigeria Programme launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the 19th of March 2020.”
“It also aligns with several pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria, including Pillar #2 on Digital Literacy and Skills. This Pillar recognises the fact that citizens are the greatest assets in the digital economy and it supports the development of a large pool of digitally literate and digitally skilled citizens.”
“The Ministry is championing a paradigm shift that lays an emphasis on skills, in preference to merely having degrees without skills, since degrees are meant to validate skills.”
“In addition to the digital skills acquired during the training, all participants also received a laptop and some stipend. They will also be provided with a modem with 1 year broadband subscription at an appropriate time, after the issue of suspension of the sale of new SIMs is resolved.”
Pantami further noted that, “the training programmes were part of the initiatives in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) of the Federal Government, conceptualised and coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.”
“The training programme is to ensure that Nigerians have the adequate digital access and digital literacy skills required to create digital jobs that can drive the Digital Economy of the country,” Pantami said.
He added that the ESP aims to enable Nigerians to respond robustly and appropriately to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The next phase of the training is scheduled to commence in other parts of the country in a few days.