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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has held a capacity training programme for personnel of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), military and paramilitary organisations.
The training covers digital literacy, cyber security essentials and cloud computing as part of government’s plan to enhance the e-readiness and digital capacity of mission-critical institutions.
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Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said a digitally literate workforce is important to making Nigeria succeed in accelerating economic growth and governance.
Abdullahi spoke virtually to declare the training officially opened. He said the IT agency is aware of the relevance of civil servants in delivering government programmes and thus the importance of equipping them with digital skills to deliver their tasks in real time.
According to him, the digital transformation efforts of the government cannot be completed without carrying along the civil servants, military and paramilitary.
Abdullahi, who was represented by the Special Assistant (Technical) to the DG, Dr. Onimisi Yahaya Mohammed, affirmed that the Federal Government of Nigeria is keen on digitalizing its activities and MDAs are central to the implementation.
He added that the desire to institutionalize digitalization programmes in all federal public institutions (FPIs) informed the setting up Digital Transformation Technical Working Group (DTTWG) by the NITDA. The DTTWG is designed to promote digitalization programmes at different levels of government.
Abdullahi said about 200 members of DTTWG drawn from various FPIs have been trained and another batch of 200 are to be trained in 2022.
“We in NITDA have supported so many FPIs in terms of tools and training, we are already collaborating and will always be willing to partner with stakeholders to support our economic diversification and sustainability plan for the country,” said the NITDA boss.
The programme is to help NITDA achieve 95% digital literacy target for 2030.
The Manager, ITIS Department, NITDA, Chinyere Nwankwo, who gave an overview of the Capacity Building Programme said the participants are drawn from 40 MDAs, military and paramilitary organizations.
She said the training is structured to be delivered in two batches of virtual and in-person.
“Upskilling the 200 participating members of staff will help Nigeria to catch up with the rest of the world in the area of digitization, job creation, technology adaptation and deployment in the work place,” said Nwankwo.
