The Nigeria Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has called on Nigerian students to make the best use of the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike by embracing some of its programmes, rather than staying idle.
Director General of the Agency, Kashifu Inuwa, who gave the charge recently, when he received in audience the  MasterCard delegation in his office in Abuja, said the target is to ignite digital innovation activities in the country.
He noted that to achieve this,  relevant partnerships would be necessary, saying that the Federal Government was not relenting in its efforts of creating an enabling environment to attract local and foreign investors.
While highlighting the Agency’s Virtual Academy, Inuwa said  a massive platform for online courses where Nigerians can go and learn at their own pace and also get digital certificates has been opened.
He further explained that  the Agency would like to engage with American multinational financial service corporations towards training about one million indigenous programmers in order to fast track the creation of some digital services Nigerians currently need.
“We know globally there is shortage of talents and Africa is the next frontier because we have the youngest population. So, everybody’s looking at Africa to get the talents”, he said.
The NITDA boss, who expressed worries over the few key professionals in the field of programming, noted that over the years it impacted negatively on the Nigerian market.
“I believe we cannot succeed in isolation. That’s why we won’t work in silos… . We  need to work together so that we can see the impact and harness the potentials well”, he said.
The General Manager, West Africa MasterCard, Ebehijie Momoh, who was accompanied by the Corporation’s Director, Public Policy, Sun-Saharan Africa, George Owuor, intimated the DG about a planned workshop to hold next month  in the country.
Momoh noted that it  would be a good time to jump-start the engagement on Cyber Security and Data Protection; training and fine-tuning the talents of Nigerians to a global level.
Such level, she said,  will enable them to compete with the rest of the world, and also make them contribute in building Nigeria to an enviable status.
“This is what we would really want to sit down, have a discussion on what the curriculum would look like, and how we can be of help, especially in the financial industry”, she said.
On his part, Director, Public Policy Sun-Saharan Africa, George Owuor, affirmed the corporation’s readiness to support NITDA in achieving it’s mandate, particularly as it relates to  the Agency’s Digital Literacy (Capacity Building) in the Seven Pillars of the Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP- 2021-2024).