During an exclusive live appearance on Channels Television’s “Sunrise Daily” program, the minister introduced the government’s comprehensive digital literacy program.

Dr. Tijani emphasized, “The plan is that by 2030, 90% of Nigerians should be digitally literate. Digital literacy doesn’t mean that you become a technical talent but it gives you the foundation to be able to choose that you also want to participate in the digital economy.”

To realize this vision, the Federal Government plans to train three million Nigerians in technical skills in the coming years, with strong collaboration between the ministry and state governments to ensure the program’s success.

Furthermore, the minister announced plans to establish hardware training centers in prominent tech hubs like Aba in Abia State and Computer Village in Lagos State.

This strategic move is designed to advance manpower development and create new job opportunities for Nigeria’s vast population of over 200 million people.

In response to questions about the inclusion of indigenous languages in tech training and software development, Dr. Tijani expressed the government’s commitment to ensuring Nigeria’s active participation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) development.

He stated, “We also quite keen on how to ensure that Nigeria can become a leader and participate actively in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) development because this is where technology is now being biased, especially when your own language and reality is not taken into consideration.

“One of the things we are doing there is supporting projects and initiatives that can ensure that all languages in Nigeria are also included in the AI drive so that the machines can recognise all the languages and we are not talking about the popular ones which is Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo; we are talking about all the languages that people may not pay attention to as important languages.”

Pantami, who presided over the graduation of participants at a two-week Digital Job Creation Training for the North-East in Gombe, which was facilitated by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, said “the reason we train citizens is

because digital skills are no longer considered a luxury, but necessities required in any business you do. If you want to be successful, you need to have digital skills.’’

According to the Minister, “ICT is not just an independent sector but the key enabler of all other sectors today. It enables opportunities in education, in health, in agriculture, in security, in defence, in manufacturing, in trade, in investment and in industry.”

He, therefore, urged the participants to adopt innovation-driven enterprises and to utilize the training they have received to improve their economic status and make Nigeria a better place.

“We have to utilize ICT in order to make our country a better place. We must use ICT even for our personal economic benefits amongst others. Therefore, we want to encourage you not to waste your time online but rather to use the knowledge you have acquired to make Nigeria a better place and at the same time, derive many economic benefits from it,” he said.

The Minister highlighted that recent reports of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, about the performance of each sector of the economy, which indicated an unprecedented ICT’s contribution of 18.44 per cent to the economy, as very heart-warming about the prospects of the industry meeting with the expectations of the relevant policies.

“So, by implication, we set a record last year and we surpassed that record this second quarter of 2022 without involving the digital services. Only the ICT sector contributed 18.44 per cent, which can be attributed to the policies which we have introduced in the sector,” he said.

He said the training which has taken place in nine other states, including the Federal Capital Territory, will be conducted throughout the remaining geopolitical zones.

The Digital Job Creation Training is a two-week programme targeted at youth desirous of developing and enhancing their ICT skills in order to promote and enhance growth in the yet untapped and commercially viable digital economy both locally and globally.

Each participant at the training received starter packs comprising a laptop with accessories, MiFi Modem with three months data subscription, and some money.

The 45,000 teachers will be drawn from 24 states, with effort been put in place to cover the remaining states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Registrar/Chief Executive of TRCN, Prof. Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja, noting that the overall objective of the programme is to bridge the gap created by the outbreak of the pandemic that adversely affected the education system.

He also noted that the training is aimed at providing capacity development opportunities to teachers in the deployment of technology, among others.

His words: “The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria as a lead agency in the Teacher Training Sub-Committee of the Global Partnership for Education COVID-19 response programme through the support of UNICEF, is embarking on digital literacy training and remote learning for 30,000 teachers across 16 focal states namely Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kastina, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara.

“The training is designed to take place in four tranches in Benue, Enugu Kaduna and Sokoto states simultaneously at the first phase.

“Each tranche of the training involves 7,500 teachers. The first stage of this project was the training of 480 master trainers who be serving as facilitators in the upcoming training across these locations. The master trainers were trained in November 2021 across the selected states.

“Furthermore, at the completion of the circle of 16 focal states, the Honourable Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu had graciously extended the training to additional 15000 teachers who will be trained in eight focal states namely, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Osun, Oyo and Rivers.

“These additional states will be the 4th phase of the GPE teacher training programme.”