By Oluwole Alao
The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa CCIE has reaffirmed the Agency’s new comprehensive Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0) 2024-2027, aimed at propelling Nigeria’s tech ecosystem to new and sustainable heights in alignment with the implementation of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda’s priority areas of accelerating economic diversification through industrialisation and digitisation.
The DG made this affirmation when he received the Country Director of the Social Good Fund, Mr. Joledo Oyewole and his team who were on a working visit to the Agency, to establish collaboration on supporting tech innovators for local and international job opportunities.
While expressing his gratitude for the visit, he emphasised the benefit of the collaboration which reflects a total alignment between NITDA’s vision of making Nigeria a Digitally empowered nation, fostering inclusive economic growth through technology and innovation with the goal of the visitors at sponsoring and developing projects that will help impact and develop local communities.
Highlighting the agency’s newly crafted SRAP 2.0 which is anchored on 8 pillars with the first pillar being to Foster Digital Literacy and Cultivate Talent, Inuwa said that “we look at digital literacy from the perspective of getting Nigerians to use IT safely and responsibly and we have a target of achieving 95% digital literacy by 2030.”
“The second part of it is the Talent and we have started training with the 3MTT initiative. Our target is to reach 3 million by the end of 2027 and the goal is not just to train but to connect them with jobs,” he added.
He urged the visitors to be part of the 3MTT programme where a robust ecosystem of Nigerians can be trained, empowered with soft skills and provided with jobs.
The NITDA DG then gave further insights into the other pillars which include; Building a Robust Technology Ecosystem, Strengthening Policy Implementation and Legal Framework, Promoting Inclusive Access to Digital Infrastructure and Services, Strengthening Cybersecurity and Enhance Digital Trust, Nurturing an Innovative and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Forging Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations and lastly, Cultivating a Vibrant Organisational Structure and an Agile Workforce in NITDA.
He noted that the Agency is focused on investing deeply in research in areas of AI, UAVs, Robotics, IoT, Blockchain and Additive Manufacturing while developing policies and legal frameworks that will create enabling environments for startups and investors.
Asserting that efforts are being made to digitise government processes to earn the trust of citizens, he added that interventions such as learning centres and innovation hubs are being created in all the geopolitical zones of the country to particularly unserved and underserved areas.
While agreeing to a strategic partnership between the 2 organisations, Inuwa averred that “we can do a lot in the area of investments because it is an area where we can explore possible partnerships to bring more investments into Nigeria for social and economic impact.”
Earlier in his remark, Mr. Jolade said that Social Good Fund is a 501(c) organisation that had been engaging in a lot of humanitarian work in the United States, Rwanda and across the world.
He however noted that the organisation is focusing on building a model in Africa where employment can be increased, and Africans would be able to take care of Africans.
Mr. Jolade announced that his office is organising a 2-day conference scheduled for June 2024 where government agencies, international organisations and the local tech ecosystem will be able to interact and proffer solutions to challenges being faced in the country.
While presenting an award to the DG NITDA, he stated “This is to officially present to you from Social Good Fund, California for your meritorious work and achievement in Nigeria in the tech space and for us to extend the hand of partnership and support to anything you are doing in the tech space in Nigeria.”
