Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, announced that the Federal Government has entered three-year, N1 Billion partnership deal with IHS Towers to establish the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) Learning Community.
According to him in a post on X platform, “this initiative, which is in support of our recently launched 3MTT programme, will facilitate the set up of learning communities in the 36 states and the FCT. The N1billion funding from IHS Towers also includes a commitment to paying the salaries of 37 dedicated learning community managers for each location for the next 3 years.”
The 3MTT Learning Community, which will utilize dedicated training spaces in each state, aims to support the development of comprehensive digital skills and prepare participants for the current and future needs of a digital workforce. In addition, these communities will provide a dynamic ecosystem that allows participants and community managers to actively engage in knowledge sharing, collaboration and innovation.
According to Mohamad Darwish, IHS Nigeria’s CEO, “At IHS Nigeria, we take pride in giving back to the people and communities where we operate. We are delighted to partner with the Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and his Ministry on the 3MTT initiative. We share the Government’s commitment to Nigeria’s economic empowerment and growth, and hope this initiative will feed into President Bola Tinubu’s agenda on job creation while enhancing technical skills.”
As a critical part of the Renewed Hope agenda, the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme is aimed at building Nigeria’s technical talent backbone to power its digital economy and position Nigeria as a net talent exporter. The first phase of the programme, executed in collaboration with NITDA, involves multiple stakeholders including fellows, training providers, partners and placement organisations.
In line with the Ministry’s 1%-10%-100% implementation approach, this first phase will aim to train and place 30,000 technical talents, representing 1% of its overall target.
The “1%-10%-100% Implementation Rule” is a framework that posits that we start small and gradually increase the scope as the projects progress. The number 1 in the mechanism denotes “Prototyping”, number 10 denotes “Piloting”, while number 100 denotes “Scaling”.
Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani
In just 2 weeks of the launch of the 3MTT programme, over 420,000 trainee applications have been received. 5,842 applications have been received from training providers and 385 partners have indicated their interest in the programme.
Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani ended his post saying that “this is the first in a number of partnerships that we will be securing in support of our targets, specifically for the 3MTT programme and broadly for the Knowledge pillar in our Strategic Blueprint.”
