The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mal. Kashifu Inuwa has received instructors and some beneficiaries of NITDA AI Developers Training (NAIDT) at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
This is part of its ambitious vision to produce a thriving community of artificial intelligence (AI) developers in the country and move towards shaping the future of technology.
Speaking to them, Inuwa noted that the Agency has achieved what it set out to do during the pilot project in Abuja, and will be extended to other states.
According to him, the vision is to create a community of developers around the country where people can come and learn, and after that, they can teach others or start their businesses and impact society.
“I believe we can start with three states this year, then strategize on how we can take it to other states and; with time, extend it to local governments. because This is driven by my firm belief that in Nigeria, our most valuable asset as a nation is our human capital.
“I want to know how many people participated, and how many females, to ensure gender balance, and I want to know who and who have started businesses from this training and who and who are making money. This will help us to mentor others because the idea is not just to train people but after training, to connect them with jobs or to inspire and mentor them to start their own businesses,” he said.
The NITDA AI Developers Training is organized through National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), in conjunction with Google Developers Group (GDG).
It has created instructors, startups and secured job opportunities for participants. The programme recorded 1227 beneficiaries across 10 Cohorts that have undergone a series of coaching and lectures to develop programming skills in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.