In its ambitious target to achieve 95 percent digital literacy by 2030 and aligning with the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to create over one million jobs for youths in the digital economy sector, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has officially launched the National Digital Literacy Framework (NDLF) for achieving a digitally literate citizenry.
The framework is aimed at providing a clear and consistent definition of digital literacy and to develop a national curriculum for digital literacy capacity building training to ensure that everyone, regardless of their background or location, has the opportunity to learn the digital skills they need to succeed in the 21st century economy.
Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, while making his remark during the unveiling at the Digital Economy Complex, Mbora in Abuja, said the framework is going to set the stage for the review of curriculum from the kindergarten to universities.
He said under the objectives of the Framework, there is Universal Access, which means every Nigerian should have access to digital literacy and also, will help the country develop youth’s skills. The second objective, according to the DG, is Skill Development, which he said will help in building digital offerings locally.
“Thirdly, Inclusive Participation means everybody should be carried along to achieve this, we are developing digital gender inclusion as well, to ensure that the Nigerian women are not being left behind and we also have the workforce readiness,” he added.
Inuwa also stressed the need for Nigeria to strategically position itself to fill 85 million talent deficits gaps with 8.5T USD unrealised annual value, which Korn Ferry projected that the world would experience by the year 2030.
“By the year 2030, the way we work will completely change” the DG said, while citing McKinsey’s research that said automation will displace between 480 million jobs; Microsoft’s which said that by 2025, there is going to be more than 190 million new IT jobs.
“If we position ourselves, we can capture this value and become the global talent factory. We have a more competitive advantage over India in terms of our young population, English-speaking people, our geographic location, and many more,” the DG said.
He stated, “to create jobs, you need to have the literacy and skill, you need the literacy for the consumers to consume the digital services, and you need skills for the developers to build the digital services. So, this framework is setting the tone and is setting the direction.”
He asserted that more work will be done, as NITDA has already done the IT Skills Gap Assessment and is currently working on the digital talent strategy that will help in building the talent pipeline; not only training people, but connecting them with jobs, either local jobs or global in other to be part of the global value chain.
The DG SMEDAN, Mr Olawale Tunde Fasanya during his goodwill message assured NITDA that the Agency will key in by including digital skills in its training curriculum to impact a lot of people. As he said the impact of digital skills on Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises is enormous.
The highlight of the event was the official signing of the NDLF by the special guest of Honour and Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr William Alo OON and the DG of NITDA.
In attendance were the DG/CEO National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr Aliyu Aziz; CEO, National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji; representative from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of Education, MTN Foundation, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and more.