The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has charged the Nigerian youths, who participated in the nationwide digital literacy training conducted by the commission to put the skills acquired as well as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools received during the exercise to appropriate and legitimate use.
Addressing the participants at the closing ceremony of the NCC’s digital literacy training for the north-west held at the Kano campus of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) at the weekend, Danbatta particularly enjoined the youth who had had the privilege of participating in the training to apply the skills acquired in gainful activities in order for them to be self-employed.
“The training has provided for you, useful skills, which you have acquired to earn a living for yourself without necessarily relying on government to give you a job. It is our hope at NCC that you will apply the skills appropriately and impact on your friends and associates. I also urge you to resist the temptations to sell the laptops and other IT tools you are going to be provided with,” Danbatta said.
Speaking further, the EVC commended President Muhammadu Buhari, the supervising Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, and the governing board of the commission for the implementation of the digital capacity-building initiative, describing the scheme as an important intervention approved by the Federal Government to make more Nigerian youths self-reliant.
“We, therefore, express our profound appreciation to the President and to our Ministry for making this particular training, which is a practical demonstration of one of the important pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030 possible,” he stated.
The NCC boss said government’s policy in this direction was aimed at lifting Nigerians, particularly the youth, out of poverty, stressing that to achieve this, there was a need to impact skills to the youth who would, in turn, use the skills for self-employment.
“It is consistent with this important policy of President Muhammadu Buhari that the board of the NCC, two years ago, set up a committee of experts chaired by the former EVC of the commission, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, to develop modalities and syllabus for the digital training of youths across the six geo-political zones of the country,” he explained.
According to him, the implementation of the recommendations of the committee of experts, as approved by the government, gave rise to the training, which targets 1,000 Nigerian youths to be digitally trained for self-employment.
Earlier, the president of the DBI, Prof. Muhammad Ajiya, who praised Danbatta for his untiring efforts to ensure the implementation of the government’s policy, said the various modules of the digital, moral and leadership skills given to the youth during the course of the training would go a long way in making the beneficiaries earn a living and be self-reliant.
Participants also expressed appreciation to the commission for the digital skills acquisition and empowerment programme.
The training, a brainchild of the commission held for two weeks across each of the six geo-political zones of the country. The youth were not only trained by subject-matter experts in ICT but were also given laptops, Internet Mi-Fi, financial support and certificates certifying the digital skills they have been equipped with.
A statement by the commission’s director of public affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, said board members of the commission participated at the closing and opening ceremonies of the training in their respective geo-political zones.
