The President/Founder of Rural Women and Girl Child Initiative RWGCI, Mrs. Theresa Ushie has called for the inclusion of women and girl child in the content creation and digital marketing training organized by the National Information Technology Development Agency in collaboration with the civil society community in Nigeria.
Ushie who stated in an event organized by the Civil Society Groups for Good Governance in Abuja, emphasised on the need for the empowerment of Nigerian youths especially the females, stating that the Nigerian economy constitutes 70% of the female gender and as such can only grow better if the women and girl child is adequately supported.
She went further to say that the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission NCC Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta during a webinar organized in February early this year, reiterated the important role played by women in the country’s socio-economic and political space while underscoring the need to empower them in information and communication technology ICT, serving as an enabler of social change.
Also speaking, NITDA Director General Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi who was represented by his S.A Digital Transformation Dr. Mohammed Aminu Lawal disclosed that it is time to develop a digital Nigeria, as the agency is set to train over 6,000 youths through a digital state initiative platform on how to create wealth without relying on the government for white-collar jobs.
“We have been training the civil servants, people living with disabilities and youths, most recently, we had a digital state initiative, which is a platform where youths are being trained on content creation, digital marketing and others.’
“The programme is in batches. Every state has its turn, as taking the whole country at once could be challenging. We have been able to train more than 6,000 youths across the country and we are still on it and it is going to continue for a very long period.” he said.
Meanwhile Dr. Ahmed Adamu, an economist and a digital strategist, in his remarks, urged Nigerian youths to push for skills acquisition rather than paper qualifications.
“Getting a certificate does not distinguish a man but the skill he is able to acquire and what he does irrespective of qualifications. The youths using the digital information for fraudulent activities is because of the mindset of getting rich quick, so they need to be reoriented so that they can channel those skills they use for dubious arts to the rightful places.” he added.
However the convener of the programme, Comrade Ogakwu Dominic the President of the Civil Society Group for Good Governance (CSGGG), in his remarks, appealed to the government to integrate skills acquisition into the normal school curriculum to curb the level of unemployment in the country.
He said: “It is time to inform the average unemployed youths that the dynamics around job creation has changed, therefore, they need to update their perception on how to get employed.”
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