The Federal Government has said it is working towards training 1 million Nigerians in technical skills by the year 2025.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who disclosed this, said the preparations for the training commenced on Tuesday with a meeting of stakeholders in tech to co-create innovative ways to achieve the target. He added that the meeting was the first in a series of ecosystem engagements to ensure that the government gets the best solutions from within.
- The Minister via a post on his X handle also called on Nigerians who wanted to get involved in the training of the 1 million to indicate an interest. “As we work towards our target of training 1 million people in technical skills by 2025, we’d love to know how you can get involved,” the Minister posted.
1 million jobs agenda
The technical training is in line with the promise by President Bola Tinubu to create 1 million jobs through tech in the first 24 months of his administration.
Highlighting his plans for job creation, Tinubu in his campaign manifesto said that apart from encouraging Nigerian youths who are currently in tech, he would introduce intervention programs in the ICT Industry and other critical sectors of the Nigerian economy where the deployment of new technologies can fast-track business growth and diversification.
He added that Investing in the ICT sector and the digital economy will stimulate local industries, enhance competitiveness, increase productivity, and provide millions of Nigerians with new skills and long-term job and wealth-creation opportunities.
While noting that his government would take advantage of recent innovations such as blockchain technology, Tinubu in his ICT agenda said:
- “Blockchain, because of its security and accountability features, has the inherent potential to make daily interactions easier, faster, and more convenient, as well as to create more opportunities to add exciting new jobs and support greater financial inclusion.”
He said his government would also be focusing on ICT-enabled outsourcing; Innovation and entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and tech manufacturing to create more tech jobs for Nigerians.
According to him, those digital products and services have been identified as having the greatest potential to bring new jobs and greater diversification to the economy.
