NITDA, Partners Train Over 2.7m Nigerians in Three Years
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NITDA, Partners Train Over 2.7m Nigerians in Three Years
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, in partnership with 251 other organisations have recorded 2,769,512 digital literacy training achievements across Nigeria in three years, representing 5.54 per cent of the Federal Government’s target of reaching 50 million beneficiaries by 2027.
The figure was disclosed through the National Digital Literacy Dashboard unveiled at the 2026 National Digital Literacy Workshop in Abuja.
The dashboard showed that 252 organisations were reporting their digital literacy interventions across the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory and all 774 local government areas.
According to the data, Cisco recorded the highest number of training achievements with 1,073,604, followed by NITDA with 960,424 and Meta Platforms Inc. with 333,816.
Other contributors included Imo Digital City Limited, the Sokoto State Ministry of Innovation and Digital Economy, the Bureau for ICT and Digital Economy, state technology agencies in Jigawa, Kaduna and Zamfara, and the Centre for Information Technology and Development.
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Speaking at the workshop, NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, said digital literacy had become as fundamental as reading, writing and numeracy, given the growing influence of technology and artificial intelligence on economic and social activities.
He said the government’s ambition was to make Nigerians digitally capable rather than turn everyone into an information technology professional.
“Our ambition is not to turn every Nigerian into an IT professional. Our ambition is to make every Nigerian digitally capable,” Inuwa said.
He explained that digital skills could help traders manage business records and receive electronic payments, enable farmers to access weather forecasts and market information, improve classroom learning for teachers and make public service delivery more efficient.
The director-general said the dashboard would help coordinate digital literacy interventions, identify underserved communities and ensure that investments in digital skills produced measurable outcomes.
He noted that the absence of a coordinated reporting system had sometimes resulted in organisations conducting similar interventions in some communities while other areas remained underserved.
“At NITDA, we see our role as an ecosystem orchestrator,” he said, adding that the agency was working to establish standards, partnerships and coordination mechanisms to improve the impact of digital literacy programmes.
The dashboard data showed that young people below the age of 35 accounted for 2,092,697 of the reported training achievements, while informal-sector workers represented 1,609,183.
Female participation stood at 32.9 per cent, while 65,767 beneficiaries were recorded from rural communities and 17,156 persons with disabilities.
Companies accounted for 151 of the 252 reporting organisations, representing 59.9 per cent while government institutions accounted for 43 organisations and non-governmental organisations accounted for 34.
However, Inuwa cautioned against interpreting the 2.7 million training achievements as the number of unique Nigerians who had attained a defined level of digital proficiency.
He said the figures needed to be complemented by credible assessments of participants’ competencies and evidence of how the skills acquired had improved their livelihoods.
The National Digital Literacy Framework, established in 2023, identifies six areas of competence: device and software operations, information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, digital safety and problem-solving.
NITDA launched its Digital Literacy for All programme in 2024 to expand access to digital skills through formal education, workforce development and informal-sector interventions.
The agency has also partnered with the National Youth Service Corps to deploy Digital Literacy Champions to markets and communities. Reports from the informal-sector initiative indicate that more than 20,000 trainers have reached over 803,000 trainees.
The framework targets 70 per cent digital literacy by 2027 and 95 per cent by 2030, in line with the Federal Government’s broader ambition to build a $1tn economy by 2030.
