The Kaduna State government has decided to partner with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to train 75, 000 of its citizens on various aspects of Information Technology in order to enhance human capital development in the state.
The partnership was sealed during a courtesy visit by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami alongside the Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa to the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasiru Elrufai last Saturday.
In a meeting today with the officials of the state government led by the Commissioner for Business Innovation and Technology, Mr. Idris Nyam and Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, the NITDA boss disclosed that the training could be held in two folds in order to accommodate the people.
He suggested that the e-Government Training facility donated to Nigeria by the Korea government could be used to train some people, while others could be trained through the NITDA Academy, assuring that the Agency would provide the logistics needed for the training.
“Building the capacity of our people should be seen as a requirement for us to enhance our drive towards the digital economy. I think is what we can explore. We will want you to identify specialized skills you want to build and we would provide you with logistics,” he said.
The DG recalled that the Minister has sent in the request letter of the state government and it has been responded to accordingly. “From our end, we are ready. If you send your request, we will engage our consultancy to see what we can do in line with our mandates.”
The Commissioner in his remarks stated that there is a need for Federal Agencies to partner with the State Governments especially in the provision of intervention projects. He added that there is political will in Kaduna state to build the ICT ecosystem, noting that the state feels that if such a partnership is successful, it becomes a win-win situation for both the State and the Agency.
He identified the sectors such as education, health and e-government, social service development and human capital development as sectors they would want the Agency to intervene as area they want Agency