The National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) has indicated its willingness to collaborate with the Federal Polytechnics, Ado Ekiti in the area of human capital development.
The NITDA Director General, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi expressed the willingness of the Agency today when the Agency hosted the management of the school led by the Rector, Engr. Dr D.H Oladebeye at its Corporate Headquarters, Abuja.
Mallam Abdullahi stated that the greatest resources in a digital economy or knowledge based economy is human capital and “NITDA would be willing to collaborate with the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti to encourage capacity building.”
He said, “Adoption of capacity building is a process that would encourage the retention of skills, knowledge, tools, and use of equipment. “We promote collaboration in capacity building; provide infrastructure and a partnership that is symbiotic”
He reiterated that the Agency is willingly to throw its support behind the Polytechnic to encourage creativity, on hands skills and entrepreneurship.
“At NITDA we see higher institutions as partners where we can harness resources and NITDA is in search of a partnership whereby students can be challenged to come up with emerging technologies that would enable job creation and promote entrepreneurship,” he maintained.
Abdullahi explained that no country can totally depend on producing white collar jobs for graduates but rather, students must be encouraged to own their own companies even before they graduate. He referenced that last year China converted some of their schools to skill acquisition centers with the aim of producing entrepreneurs and innovators.
He further stated that in the United State of America, Silicon Valley is mostly being serviced by StandFord and other Universities around; BOSTON is tapping resources from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Based on MIT’s latest report on their alumni’s they stated that the alumni’s have over 30,000 active companies and these companies have employed more than four million people around the world generating an annual revenue of over 2 trillion US dollars. “We also can explore this kind of educational system.
“To identify with human capital, we must enhance the resources within the individual that is his knowledge and ability to create equivalent ecosystem that would sustain the digital and innovative economy,” Abdullahi said.
While advocating for focusing on building a generation of experts in IT and other sectors the DG said the Polytechnic should be seen as engine room to produce entrepreneurs that NITDA is positioned to partner with.
Earlier the Rector, Engr. Dr Oladebeye had identified the need for the NITDA’S interventions in two distinctive areas which are; provision of Wide Area Network (WAN) with a robust IP hosting and eLearning facilities to help develop the institution in the area of ICT.
These, according to the Rector, are in line with the mandate from the Head of Civil Service of the Federation Mrs. Folashade Mejabi Yemi-Esan to digitize all academic institutions within the country.
He confirmed that the institution is currently running different skill acquisition programs that would enable the collaboration and promises to ensure sustainability of any infrastructure provided by the NITDA and incorporate feedback mechanism between the two parties
The Rector appreciated the NITDA DG and the management staff for the campaign towards digital transformation of the Nigeria economy.