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Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has commissioned a Community IT Centre in Hadejia Local Government of Jigawa State. The project was established by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
One of NITDA’s ICT interventions in the northwest zone of Nigeria, the new Hadejia Community IT Centre is part of government’s effort to diversify the country’s economy and is one of the three community IT training centres provided by the NITDA across the country, said Dr. Pantami while commissioning the Hadejia centre.
He told the audience he laid the foundation of the IT centre in 2018 when he was still the director general of NITDA and commended his successor, the current director general of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, for his commitment to ensuring the centre was completed.
According to the minister, the IT centre fulfills President Muhammadu Buhari’s goal for a national digital economy in order to be part of the global tech-led economy. Pantami further tasked state governors to support the federal government in helping to foster wealth creation initiatives that leverage ICT tools.
Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Muhammad Badaru Abubakar described the centre as a rallying point for development able to make young people to become self-reliant individuals.
He thanked the minister for choosing Hadejia to host one of the only three communities IT centers across the country and assured him of the state government’s support in sustaining the centre.
The NITDA’s boss, Abdullahi said that the centre is equipped to build digital capacity in the youth and prepare them for the digital economy.
“Federal ggovernment is heavily investing in skills and training centres so that our youths can use them to leverage IT knowledge.
“I believe that when you empower youths, the economy gets stronger and create value and prosperity. Therefore, we built and equipped this centre that can accommodate 40 participants at a time; each person can have access to latest computer hardware and software,” said Abdullahi.
The Emir of Hadejia, Alhaji Abubakar Maje while thanking the government and the NITDA for the centre assured the minister that the people of Hadejia and Jigawa state will utilise the resource to become better citizens.
The NITDA recently commissioned an ICT Resource Centre at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State as part of government’s agenda to build digital skills nationwide.
