Communication Minister Says FG on Course to Commercialise ICT for Youth Empowerment

The intention of the federal government to engage millions of Nigerian youths in gainful employment, is on course, Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu has said.

Shittu, stated this on Tuesday at the University of Ibadan, where he spoke at the youth empowerment programmes where over 100 Nigerian Computer graduates were trained to be web designers and employers of labour by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

The minister said that work is at advanced stage towards establishing innovation hubs across the six geo political zones of Nigeria to incubate, mentor and commercialise ICT related ideas and innovations and Ibadan is one of such centres.

Part of such moves, he said informed why NITDA has embarked on the training of unemployed graduates in the country, to equip them with skills needed to provide web design services to clients on a continuous basis.

The training, which is aimed at developing youth and helping them realise their full potential in IT and be self- reliant, was formally launched at the University of Ibadan IT Resource Center.

Shittu who was represented by the acting Director General of NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji said: “Recent statistics from the NBS shows that 19:7 per cent of the labour force and 71 per cent of students who graduate from tertiary education do not find work. This may virtually be the cause of the various vices we experience from among the youth and it is in the light of this that the federal government in a bid to address the challenge is approaching the employment generation issues headlong.

“Nigeria faces a number of challenges that can be tackled with innovative, well educated, patriotic and optimistic citizens, who have the courage and inquisitivesness to think in new ways. With youth comes energy, innovation and optimism if given the opportunity; unfortunately, the youth in the country encounter a lot of hardship in the society.

“Empowerment programmes such as this would allow the youths to exercise their inquisitivesness and bring innovation to bear on solutions to man’s challenges”.

Earlier, in his welcome address, NITDA boss said the agency in a bid to tackle unemployment in the country embarked on the training.

“The programmes by the NITDA is not only to assist in the training of the critical mass of professionals in the information technology space but also generate the needed employment opportunities provided by the fact of information technology being an enabler of economic growth and development.”