The National Information Technology
Development Agency has begun plans to train about 750 lecturers in core
Information Technology curriculum in tertiary institutions spread across
the country.
The Director-General, NITDA, Prof.
Cleopas Angaye, said the training was part of the agency’s effort to
grow the critical mass of human capital needed to take Nigeria into the
league of nations using ICT to grow their economies and beef up their
revenue generation base.
According to a document made available
to our correspondent on Monday, the NITDA boss recalled that the agency
had in the past trained about 6,100 unemployed graduates on IT
essentials, as well as 600 graduates on IT skill acquisition.
“More than 15,000 people have also been
trained on basic computer appreciation skills, using the Mobile Internet
units across the various states and local government areas and schools
in the country,” he said.
Speaking further, Angaye said about 759
graduates had been shortlisted for the scholarship scheme instituted by
the agency, adding that the number was compiled after a rigorous short
listing exercise carried out by NITDA across the six geopolitical zones
of the country.
The scholarship scheme, according to
him, will enable beneficiaries study for their doctorate and master’s
degree programmes in any university in any part of the world.
Drawn from the 36 states of the
federation, Angaye said 165 master’s and 594 first degree holders, who
had applied for the scholarship, would write an aptitude test on April
12 in Abuja.
According to him, the candidates are
expected to face NITDA officials and a screening panel of experts who
will assess their credentials and ensure that they are qualified to earn
the agency’s funding and be good ambassadors of the country.
Of the 759 applicants, Angaye said only six would qualify for the doctorate scholarship and 72 for the master’s scholarship.
The NITDA graduate scholarship scheme
began in 2011 when 6 candidates were chosen for the doctorate degree
programme and 72 for the master’s programme.
Angaye said qualified candidates were
free to choose any university of their choice in any part of the world
to pursue their programme; adding that an equal number of applicants
would also be selected next year to benefit from the scheme.
The objective of the training and
scholarship, according to Angaye, is to create an alternative source of
revenue other than oil for the beneficiaries and the government.
“Our goal is to create a critical pool
of IT workforce, who are able to play at the highest levels in the
global knowledge economy’s competitive arena,” he said.
According to him, the scholarship scheme
is part of the Nigerian National e-Human Capital Development Strategy
being pursued by the agency.
It is in line with the holistic efforts
in accelerating Nigeria’s sustainable socio-economic development towards
achieving Vision 2020 through ICT for Development programme.
The ICT4D addresses eleven key sectors
of the economy. They are health, agriculture, education, research and
development, human resource development, governance and legislature,
electronic government, infrastructure, private sector, awareness,
popularisation and development.
