FG To Provide Digital Training To Youths In Nigeria

The Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu, on Wednesday said government would provide an enabling environment for the youths to thrive digitally.

Shittu said this during the media briefing organised by Google to mark the Digital Skills for Africa to reach one million people, tagged: Digital Million Milestone.

According to Shittu, the impact the training will have on the youth will be enormous, therefore there is need for government to key into the Google training.

“There is need for proper policy and guideline that will make way for an enabling environment for the youths to thrive digitally,’’ he said. Shittu said that government had a major role to develop the human capacity and ICT was a platform that they would leverage upon. He said that Nigeria had a good productive age group and their energy should be harnessed, which Google could make globally competitive.

The minister was represented by Mrs Monisola Udoh, the Director, Information Communication and Technology (ICT) of the ministry.

A trainee, Morris said: “I learnt to do things strategically and that came from the tools and skills I got from the training.’’

Another trainee, Abodunrin said that the training provided a platform for him to access businesses that would help him to succeed. Earlier, the Google Country Manager, Mrs Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, said that the web was a driver of economic growth and was transforming society as a whole.

According to her, people must be equipped through training and re-skilling to make use of the tools and take advantage of it for entrepreneurship, employment and e-inclusion. The Digital Skills for Africa programme was aimed to help close the digital gap in Africa, improve employability and encourage entrepreneurship among young people.