The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have announced plans to collaborate to increase youth technology adoption and awareness in Nigeria.
The Chief General of the NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi who communicated the Organization’s readiness to team up with the Corps during a politeness call by the group drove by the Chief General of the NYSC, Brig Gen. Yushau Dogara Ahmed reiterated that NITDA, which is the foundation for increasing awareness and adoption of emerging technologies, will be more than willing to tweak the collaboration that is already in place to advance the nation.
“We are looking to position Nigeria to become the global talent factory,” because “all graduates pass through your Organization,” your agency is essential for this.
The DG remarked, “If we can collaborate, we can use that one year they would serve the nation to change their lives.”
Inuwa stated that Nigeria would need to be innovative in its pursuit of industrialization, despite the fact that he stated that the country would not be able to join the league of developed nations in a manner that was as traditional as that of Asian nations, which took them no less than fifty years to achieve.
The DG emphasized that more than 55% of the country’s GDP is based on services, and that the talent route remains the quickest way to raise the bar.
He went on to say that “there is a talent shortage in the world, and if Nigeria can position itself by training people and conveniently providing 2 million developers in two years, it can earn about $40 billion from the pool of 2 million developers, which will invariably also help address the Agency’s remittance challenge as well.”
“Taking a gander at the way that Nigeria can be the ability center of the world, given its upper hand to close the hole, we have distinguished your Association as a key accomplice, assuming that we should accomplish the projections”, Inuwa insisted.
Inuwa informed his guests that the Agency had begun putting some of the plans into action since then, such as training One Million Developers in 2022, of which Youth Corps members were among the beneficiaries.
“I’m trusting that our cooperation won’t just unite youthful Nigerians to be prepared on the most proficient method to assemble versatile applications and frameworks yet will likewise interface them to potential open doors”.
The Director-General declared, “We are strategizing on how to expand the training to other States as we plan to pilot it in the six geopolitical zones. However, if we can work with you, it will be much easier for us to get the talents because you have graduates.” According to the NITDA Boss, the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics trains and graduates approximately 124 youths each month. He added that, although this is the basic training, there are other categories, including
He guaranteed the group from the NYSC that NITDA is keen on going past conceding their solicitation by teaming up to guarantee that intrigued Corp Individuals are prepared to become advance engineers.
Engr. Ya’u Garba, the National Director of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), introduced the visiting team to the Centre’s operations and future plans and talked about the various programs designed to increase awareness and use of emerging technologies.
In the interim, the Chief General of the Public Youth Administration Corps (NYSC), Brig Gen. In his brief, Yushau Dogara Ahmed stated that the purpose of the courtesy call was to acknowledge NITDA’s overall performance and the Corporation’s and Agency’s ongoing collaboration, which he deemed commendable, particularly with the establishment of Digital Economy Centres at NYSC Camps in some states.
According to Ahmed, the act has significantly contributed to the support of the Organization’s State Secretariat and the Scheme as a whole in terms of information technology (IT).
Ahmed stated, “I want to use this opportunity to solicit NITDA’s support in assisting NYSC with some information technology (IT) equipment for the smooth take off of our newly constructed information and communication technology (ICT) centre in our National Directorate Headquarters.” This will allow the ICT center to operate more efficiently.
The NYSC DG claims that the Corporation previously operated an information and communications technology (ICT) center in Abuja’s Area 1, Garki, but it soon became necessary to construct a larger facility, which is currently 90 percent complete.
Ahmed reassured the Director General of NITDA and his management team that the NYSC Scheme will continue to assist the Agency in achieving its stated goal of 95 percent digital literacy by 2030.
