The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, has unveiled an ambitious goal to achieve 90% digital literacy among Nigerians by 2030.
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.”