Kashifu Abdullahi (right), director-general of NITDA, and NNeoma Ijei, country director of Doballi, when the Doballi team visited NITDA in Abuja recently.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Afrovision Technologies Limited (Doballi) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate sustainable employment opportunities for Nigerian tech talents.
This comes as Nigerian tech talents face the challenge of low job placement despite the country’s vibrant tech scene. Many who have acquired in-demand digital skills cannot easily land a job.
The agreement will, therefore, see NITDA, a federal government agency saddled with the mandate to develop and regulate information technology in Nigeria, and Doballi, a Dubai-based AI-enabled expertly vetted remote work recruitment platform that connects rigorously tested and expertly vetted African tech talents ready to work across all time zones to global opportunities, leverage on each other’s platform to not only drive digital transformation in the country but also enhance employment opportunities in the tech sector.
NITDA will provide a steady supply of Nigerian technical talents who will be onboarded on Doballi platform. At the same time, Doballi will use its platform and network to connect such talents with global enterprises desirous of hiring vetted African tech talents.
According to the MOU, NITDA will be responsible for ensuring that talents submitted for onboarding on Doballi are trained to an employable standard, acting as a sustainable pipeline for tech talent supply to the Doballi dashboard, and providing institutional network and agency collaboration for recruiting candidates for remote digital jobs.
For its part, Doballi will assist NITDA in vetting and shortlisting the successful candidates to be onboarded on the Doballi platform. This will come at no cost to NITDA as Doballi has agreed to write off the mandatory assessment fee of US$150 payable by talents before onboarding them on the Doballi platform.
Furthermore, Doballi will provide an information pack regarding the primary areas of interest and certification requirements for each talent, facilitate the candidates’ cross-cultural training, and co-create a special dashboard on its platform for NITDA to monitor the talents’ progress, including feedback from employers and foreign currency-based payments and taxes into the Nigerian banking system.
Speaking on the development, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director-general of NITDA, welcomed the partnership and emphasised that such platform does not only create a pipeline for a sustainable digital jobs but also visibility for social and economic data for policy and decision makers.
Also speaking, Nneoma Ijei, country director of Doballi, expressed confidence that the collaboration will create remote job opportunities for Nigerian tech talents and promote economic advancement and professional growth across the country.
“As the world grapples with a growing demand for tech talents, Africa stands ready to lead, with Nigeria at the forefront. With its young, vibrant, and innovative workforce, the continent is poised to redefine the future of technology and drive global innovation,” Ijei said, adding that Doballi is positioned at the forefront of this change.
