The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said it had trained 200 Nigerians living with disabilities in digital skills so as to eradicate poverty and support creativity.
The NITDA Director-General, Mr Kashifu Abdullahi, stated this in Abuja, at the 11th annual conference of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, Abuja chapter.
The NITDA DG, who spoke on a theme, ‘Digital concepts in a growing economy’, noted that the government had also established 988 IT hubs across the country to promote an IT-driven economy and job creation.
He said, “The government will continue to build capacity in all aspects of knowledge-based development and one of the strategies is through the establishment of the IT hubs.
“Another strategy is the establishment of digital job creation centres to engender digital skills in educational institutions and rural areas of the country. A total of 988 centres have been established in the country between 2007 and 2017.
“We also extended our capacity building programme to people living with disabilities in order to improve the economic conditions of Nigerians.
“We have trained a total of 200 participants with the aim of encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit among people living with disabilities. Another objective is to eradicate hardship and poverty among the people living with disabilities.”
“Based on our mandate, we have set aside seven priority areas, which are IT regulation, local content development and promotion, cybersecurity, government digital service promotion, digital job creation, digital inclusion and capacity building.
“Between 10 to 15 years ago, nobody would have imagined the impact of Information Technology on the Nigerian economy. Jobs such as Uber driver, data scientist, digital marketer, and big data architect never existed.
“The National Bureau of Statistics has revealed that the contribution of the ICT to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product surpassed that of oil and gas in the second quarter of 2019, contributing a whopping 13.85 per cent to the economy.”
The ISACA Abuja Chapter President, Mr Glory Idehen, said that the conference would provide business and networking opportunities for Nigerians and bring quality ICF professionals to manage the “critical sectors of our economy.”
