The National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA), World Bank and IBM Computers said their training of young graduates on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was to create ICT entrepreneurs.
The organisations made this known on Monday at the opening of one-week training on entrepreneurship for young ICT graduates and interns in the country held in Abuja.
According to them, capacity building is key to economic empowerment, as the youths who constitute larger percent of the nation deserve more attention in that regard.
The Acting Director-General, NITDA, Dr Vincent Olatunji, said that capacity building was a solution to recession in a nation like Nigeria.
“In recognition of this, NITDA, World Bank through Growth Empower Project (GEM) and IBM Computers came together to empower youths across the country on ICT.
“We implore participants to take advantage of the training to equip themselves with needed technical and leadership skills for self-employment,’’ he said.
Olatunji commended the organisers for their commitment to the nation’s growth on ICT development in the country.
Similarly, Mrs Remi Abere, the Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs Leader, IBM said that the main idea was to equip participants with required skills to determine where they deserve to be after the training.
“At the end of this training, they should be able to know what they needed, in terms of goals to do an ICT business of their own with little capital and move on.
“They will be exposed to identifying those available tools to do what kind of ICT business and how to manage it into larger business entity, using digital strategies for self-development.
“All these have become necessary because employment opportunities are few and far between, hence the need to explore what individuals are passionate about, using available social media to market them,” she said.
Also speaking, Mr Yusuf Bashir, GEM representative at the event said that the training was organised to create entrepreneurs and employable applicants in the area of ICT.
“In the past, we have had programmes whereby people get trained, but they still can’t find jobs. This training aims to equip participants with adequate skills for self-employment.
“ICT is about passion, those who succeeded in the field are usually passion driven and this training is to boost their passion for it,” he said.
Yusuf added that NITDA was an excellent partner in ICT development, giving the availability of their facilities across the country and the quality of their manpower.
Some of the participants who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) commended the organisers and expressed the hope of getting adequate ICT skills for self-employment.
NAN reports that 50 graduates of ICT within the last four years were invited for training, and the training would be replicated across the country.