Kaduna State Commissioner canvasses massive training of youths on ICT
Youths
By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
Abuja, May 2, 2019 (NAN) Kaduna State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Muhammad Abudullahi, has called for training of youths on Information Communication Technology (ICT) across the country to create employment and enhance national development.
Abdullahi made the called during his remark at the DAI Roundtable and Book launch on Thursday in Abuja.
The topic for discussion was “Access for All in a Digital Economy: the role of digital access in fostering inclusive and sustainable economic development”.
Abdullahi said one of the fundamental concerns was the issue of demography and population, adding that Kaduna State has a population of about nine million and Nigeria about 200 million.
He projected that in the next 20 years, Nigeria’s population could hit 300 million, adding that about 70 per cent of the population comprise youths.
“ Thus, we have a very young population that needs something to take their minds off the negativity in life.
“ We are 20 years late in having this discussion. We have been saying, we are on a time bomb but the truth is, the bomb has partly exploded.
“And we are facing the effects in form of insecurity across our states.
“The insecurities we are seeing now are as a result of lack of inclusion or exclusion of the young population over the last 20 years.
“We are in an emergency stage right now; this is the time to stop what has already exploded and ensure that it does not happen again.
“The growth that we had over the last decade had never been inclusive.
The critical challenge we have is linking growth to jobs today.
“How do we ensure the mopping up of these vast amounts of our people that are jobless and lost faith in the ability of government to deliver?
“ We cannot push all youths to go for jobs in government because the perceived white collar jobs are not even there.
“We design a lot of programmes in Kaduna around digital space, digital entrepreneurship that is quickly connecting our young people to globally available opportunities.
“We partnered with the World Bank and Rockefeller Foundation for trainings and link them up with digital platforms where people are actually getting jobs to do.
“So we believe that digital space provide avenue to quickly mop up a lot of jobless population.
“It is not going to provide three million people but it will go a long way in terms of what is also available,’’ Abdullahi said.
He explained that within the digital space, there was no ability for government to connect to citizen in a better and faster way.
According to him, digital integration is very critical, adding that Kaduna State Government had worked with National Identity Management Commission in the last two years registering over two million people.
Abdullahi said “we could not assume that the digital space is a silver bullet that is going to solve all forms of unemployment in the country.
“It is very important that we realise that the targeted and particular part of the population in this space are younger, and trainable.
“We also design other form of programmes for the other part of the population, but the first part is the willingness of the individual to be train.
“However, government has the responsibility to regulate, develop human capital, provide infrastructure in broadband and incentives that will benefit all and ensure effective cyber security.
“This is because it does not make sense to train millions of people on internet and such people cannot access the internet,’’ he said.
Ms Brigit Helms, DAI’s Vice President, Technical Services said there was the urgent need to start doing things differently.
Helms said that innovation was very instrumental to the development and advancement of digital space, adding that it was something that should be encourage.
“You cannot regulate digital space because if you attempt, it is like you are killing innovation.
“But another critical question is that, do the young people trust government in provision of services. I think government agencies need to synergise to boost the digital space.
“However, the challenges that should be address is availability, affordability and quality of social and economic services,’’ Helms said.
Ms Ladi Keffi, Principal Economist at Central Bank of Nigeria said the apex bank had been doing a lot in financial inclusion and youth employment.
“We have a Financial Inclusion Secretariat, Financial Literacy working group, Financial Intervention Focus Group and many others to help Nigerians in various forms of entrepreneurship and skill development.’’
The Director-General of National Information Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Isa Pantami said that the agency was an ICT regulatory and development body.
According to him, the agency regulates and supports ICT development, adding that its existence is not to restrict or oppress operators.
He said that IT could not be developed by public sector alone.
Pantami said that an Executives Orders by the present administration had facilitated the inclusion of local content and the ease of doing business in the ICT sector in the country.
The high point of the event was the distribution of 353-page book titled: “Access for All, Building Inclusive Economic System’’ written by Helms. (NAN)
CMY/DE/GY
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Edited by Dorcas Jonah/Grace Yussuf