With the unpleasant circumstances around crude oil, which is the main revenue earner for the country, the reality of the need to diversify the economy has now dawned on Nigeria. But even as the oil price continues its free fall, the future still holds prospects for the country with the existence of a government agency such as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which—like a wise man saving for the rainy day—has continued to build Information and Communication (ICT) capacity for the country.
And now that the overlooked ICT is now becoming the most viable alternative to oil, the country needs NITDA more than ever before. Part of NITDA’s core mandate is to develop ICTs in Nigeria, and this the Agency has been implementing by training Nigerians across all strata and investing in researches to increase the country’s knowledge base in ICT innovations, especially in the area of software development. The agency has been delivering its mandates through human capacity development programmes such as scholarship scheme for graduates and undergraduates, Cisco Network Academy, Train-the-Trainer programme, Catch-Them-Young and Free and Open Source Software Training. Others are the Enterprise Technology Centre and Kado Resource Centre; Training of Unemployed Graduates in IT Essentials; ICT Youth Empowerment Scheme and Business Process Outsourcing. NITDA’s ICT capacity building strategy can also be seen in the establishment of technology incubation programs, start-up communities, ICT clusters and other IT development networks, which are being used to stimulate the growth of the sector.
Besides, as the government agency responsible for ICT policy implementation and planning, and with a strong determination to promote local content and innovation in the ICT sector, NITDA in 2013, developed guidelines for Nigerian content development in ICT, with a view to promoting local innovation in the sector. The formulation of the guidelines, supervised by the Ministry of Communications Technology, which took effect from December 3, 2013, seeks to enable the local ICT industry to contribute meaningfully towards the achievements of national development targets. It seeks to promote the production, sales and consumption of high quality ICT products and services, developed by indigenous companies that will serve the unique needs of the local and global market. It also seeks to facilitate efforts to build capacity and equip Nigerians to serve as active workers and participants in the local ICT industry.
The initiative of NITDA in developing the local content guidelines, no doubt, is to promote skills in ICT that will advance the course of Nigeria in global competitiveness. But the agency did not stop there; rather, it continues to empower more Nigerians through its training programmes to produce the human capital that the country needs to promote local content in ICTs. NITDA’s ICT capacity building programmes are hinged on the relaisation that ICT provides people with the opportunity and additional skills that would enhance good governance, reduce poverty, create jobs, improve healthcare delivery and other basic necessities of life that can help improve the standard of living.
The agency also believes that the development of requisite ICT human capital will enhance the capacities of individuals and working teams whilst improving organisation systems and process, as well as fostering national development, economic growth and global competitiveness. Hence, NITDA has embarked on various massive investments in ICT capacity building which include the training of directorate cadre of federal public service, training of unemployed youths, and scholarship scheme for higher degrees in core ICT areas among others.
Just recently, the agency embarked on an online outsourcing pilot training for no fewer than 50 unemployed persons with a view to empowering them to become self employed. Speaking at the flag off of the one week long training programme, the Acting Director General, Vincent Olatunji, noted that online jobs were the way to addressing the growing unemployment rate in the country. According to him, online jobs do not only have impact on the economy, but provide consistent income, access to basic needs of life, enhance social relevance and afford freedom of movement or actions.
His words: “We are creating jobs and for every entrepreneur you create in ICT you are creating three or four other jobs because if they leave this place and they start their own business they will definitely employ people to work for them and earn revenue. “Globally, online jobs are very important now, you can stay anywhere and work in any part of the world,” he added. Olatunji, while noting that NITDA was committed towards developing more skills to address the gaps existing due to shortage of skills across the country, disclosed that a monitoring and evaluation exercise would be carried out after a period of six months to determine the success of the programme. He urged the participants to make good use of the opportunity saying “you need to value what you have as it is in high demand, only if you know and that is why this training is key to helping you reach your goals of sufficiency and less dependence on the white collar jobs.”While the Agency promised to reward three outstanding trainees with a laptop each to complement with the knowledge acquired, it urged them to put whatever they have learnt in practice as there are mechanisms put in place to measure their performances.
In a related development, NITDA also recently flagged off training in ICT essential for all Corp members and industrial training students serving with the Agency. The Acting Director General, while declaring open the training session, advised the young Nigerians to see ICT as an imperative tool capable of liberating the economy of the nation from the jaw of the dwindling oil revenue. He stated that ICT sector has the capacity to empower people and change their fortunes adding that there is no limit to the jobs that could be created from the ICT sector. The training aims at availing the Corps members and IT students the prerequisite knowledge on computer assemblage, networking and computer trouble shooting.
Taking a holistic approach in its capacity building programmes to ensure that all Nigerians, irrespective of status get empowered, the Agency had earlier in January this year commenced the second edition of ICT training for People with Disabilities. The training was aimed at increasing the capacities of another 55 people with physical challenges. According to the Acting NITDA boss, the objective of the training was to give the special people the sense of belonging in projects and programs of the Agency.
He said, “One of the core objectives of NITDA is to increase human capital development through ICT thereby creating jobs and diversifying the economy” adding, “we feel that we cannot be increasing the capacity of the able ones in our society and leaving the special people like you, and this makes this training become imperative because in our own little way you are an important part of our society.”
“We want you to take the advantage of the training to transform your lives. I advise you to have a dream and vision and the government will provide the platform for you to excel. He informed them that they should not see their physical impediments as challenges that may limit the level they can get to in life adding that ICT is not a magic and rocket science but a tool they could use to be independent of others and attain any level in life. “We are not only training you on ICT alone; we are going to provide you with working tools and make you entrepreneurs, and remember that with one ICT entrepreneur we are creating three employees” he assured.
As part of initiatives to encourage ICT awareness and development in the country, NITDA in partnership with National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) last December supported a Hackathon Idea sprint at the NYSC camp in Abuja, which led to award of cash prizes to winners. According to the agency, the initiative was born out of the need to encourage people with bright ideas that can develop the country. While advising the youth corps members to approach the agency’s Office of ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship (O.I.I.E) with their bright ideas with a promise that the agency will readily render help to those with ideas that can stand in the global ICT world, NITDA reiterated its readiness to encourage ICT start-ups .
Beyond capacity building for individuals, NITDA has also taken the ICT empowerment to government cycles through training and re-training programmes for government officials with a view to equipping them with ICT knowledge for optimum performance. Hence, ICT training for national lawmakers, civil servants and even the military has been part of the agency’s capacity building programmes.
NITDA ACT mandates the agency to proactively assist Nigerian governments, agencies and companies to improve their processes and product quality, through several training and retraining programmes, and this has been the agency’s focus in all its trainings, which many Nigerians have benefitted from.
Obviously, through the policy on education, training and deployment of appropriate technical know-how, NITDA has moved away from the era of policy initiation to implementation. Already, the agency, through its trainings is bridging the knowledge gap in ICT and at the same time building a pool of human capital that the country can draw from to drive a knowledge economy.
No doubt, ICT is a strategic pre-requisite for the transformation of any nation’s economy from resource-based to a knowledge-based one and achieving sustainable socio-economic development under the new globalisation. With NITDA raising the bar in capacity building, it can be said that Nigeria is on the right track to building a knowledge-based economy. However, the agency still needs to put more efforts by expanding its ICT capacity building programmes to all the nooks and crannies of the country. Certainly, such will require more resources, which the government must be ready to provide, if it indeed wants to build a knowledge-based economy.