NITDA seeks industry, university collaboration to bridge digital skills gap
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NITDA seeks industry, university collaboration to bridge digital skills gap
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA has called for stronger collaboration among industry players, academic institutions and innovation stakeholders to bridge Nigeria’s digital skills gap and improve productivity.
The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, made the call while speaking at the MTN Breakfast Session, themed “When Transnationals Invest”, during the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja.
Inuwa said the disconnect between academic institutions, industries and the innovation ecosystem had continued to undermine efforts to develop a workforce equipped to meet Nigeria’s changing economic and technological needs.
He urged stakeholders to adopt a coordinated national strategy that would align education and training programmes with industry requirements.
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“Our human capital is our greatest national resource,” he said, stressing the need for graduates to acquire practical skills relevant to the labour market.
The NITDA boss said the agency’s digital literacy programme was not designed to turn every Nigerian into an information technology professional but to equip citizens with digital competencies to improve their work, increase productivity and expand economic opportunities.
He said the National Digital Literacy Framework targeted 70 per cent digital literacy by 2027 and 95 per cent by 2030, in line with the Federal Government’s digital development objectives.
To achieve the targets, Inuwa said NITDA had introduced the Digital Literacy for All initiative to expand access to digital skills training nationwide through partnerships with public and private sector organisations.
He disclosed that the agency had partnered with Nasarawa State University and Cisco to develop learning content based on the National Digital Literacy Framework.
According to him, the framework covers six competency areas and three proficiency levels: basic, intermediate and advanced.
He added that NITDA was reviewing the framework to incorporate artificial intelligence literacy in response to emerging technological demands.
Inuwa said Nasarawa State University had integrated digital literacy into its general studies curriculum, making the subject compulsory for students.
On efforts to monitor progress, he said NITDA had established the National Digital Literacy Dashboard to track interventions and document contributions by organisations working to improve digital skills across the country.
He disclosed that 252 organisations had reported their activities on the platform, documenting the training of approximately 2.77 million Nigerians from 2023 to date.
The interventions, he said, covered all 774 local government areas and 14,664 communities.
Inuwa identified Cisco as the leading contributor to the reported figures, with its educational platforms used to train more than 1.073 million Nigerians.
He urged organisations implementing digital literacy programmes, including those operating through foundations and corporate social responsibility initiatives, to report their activities on the dashboard.
He said comprehensive reporting would improve coordination, reduce duplication and ensure that underserved communities benefited from digital skills interventions.
The NITDA director-general added that collaboration should extend beyond training to ensuring that acquired skills translated into measurable productivity gains and economic growth.
He called on employers, universities, innovators and other stakeholders to identify the skills required by industries and align training programmes accordingly.
