The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Dr Pantami has urged the participants of the Digital Job Creation Training to challenge themselves in order to stay motivated so that they can improve their level of skill.
Pantami said this as he addressed the participants of the Digital Job Creation Training at the virtual Closing Ceremony, which took place on Friday, 12th March 2021.
According to a press release signed by the Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Femi Adeluyi, he said that the ceremony was a culmination of the first phase of the training that took place simultaneously in five States of the country, namely Oyo, Ogun, Katsina, Jigawa and Imo.
The training programmes were part of the initiatives in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) of the Federal Government conceptualized and coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
The ESP aims to enable Nigerians to respond robustly and appropriately to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the training is to ensure that Nigerians have the adequate digital access and digital literacy skills required to create digital jobs that can drive the Digital Economy of the country.
The Digital Job Creation Programme is in line Digital Nigeria Programme launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the 19th of March 2020. It also aligns with several pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria, including Pillar #2 on Digital Literacy and Skills. This Pillar recognises the fact that citizens are the greatest assets in the digital economy and it supports the development of a large pool of digitally literate and digitally skilled citizens.
The Ministry is championing a paradigm shift that lays an emphasis on skills, in preference to merely having degrees without skills, since degrees are meant to validate skills.
In addition to the digital skills acquired during the training, all participants also received a laptop and some stipend.
They will also be provided with a modem with 1 year broadband subscription at an appropriate time, after the issue of suspension of the sale of new SIMs is resolved.
He encouraged them to identify challenges in different sectors of the economy that their newly acquired digital skills can address. He also tasked them to take advantage of the mentorship opportunities that will be made available.
The next phase of the training is scheduled to commence in other parts of the country in a few days.
