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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is introducing the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Scheme (TIES) to provide opportunity and build capacity of both hub managers and technology startups.
Designed round the objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), TIES targets massive creation of entrepreneurs and jobs within the ecosystem.
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“As an Agency, we noticed that most of the young talented people who have ideas lack mentorship. Iinnovative solutions are needed to tackle the problems in the country which NITDA is helping by creating the avenue that would provide a balance between the innovators and the markets,” said Director-General, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, during a webinar session with stakeholders and members of the TIES Scheme.
He noted that the idea was conceptualised during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist industry partners who have established IT hubs to upskill their hubs and help with their businesses. TIES is in furtherance to transforming the country into a knowledge-based and IT-driven economy, the NITDA boss added.
According to him, many economies are struggling to survive because of the pandemic. It has become apparent that to embrace the new normal and survive, countries must encourage the development of emerging technologies to move forward.
According to Abdullahi, the initiative will be used as a platform to invest in creative people who can create jobs for themselves and others. It would enable partners to turn their ideas into reality in form of products and services.
“NITDA, as a Federal Government Agency, was established to, among others, develop and regulate Information Technology in Nigeria and is assiduously working to develop the innovation process through the creation of enabling platforms and opportunities propelling creative ideas from inception to actualization, resulting into impact in the society.”
He further said that to accelerate the prosperity of the country, NITDA is working on delivering the target of achieving 95% digital literacy by the year 2030 which is possible if the agency and its partners work together.
The NITDA boss explained that the target could be achieved by engaging two perspectives, these are; getting people to understand and use technology and digital services, and building capacity in other to establish digital services locally.
“There is a target to train 1 million developers in the next 18 months, and we will be looking forward to getting better ideas from you on how to deliver this initiative because as a government agency we believe the only way to achieve success is to work together and establish stronger partnerships between ourselves,” he added.
