NITDA Reaffirms Commitment to Empower Youths to Drive Digital Economy
NEWS DIGEST – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) reaffirmed its commitment to empowering young people by utilising tech skills and fostering an environment that will allow them to reach their full potential and support the country’s digital economy.
Director General of NITDA Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi stated that the agency’s main priorities are “youth, skill-building, and employability” in light of the world’s rising inflation and unemployment rates. The Global Entrepreneurship Network’s Youth Entrepreneurship Dialogue (YED) Global Entrepreneurship Week, 2022, featured Abdullahi’s keynote speech on “Problems, Possibilities, and Potentials of Nigerian Youths.”
The head of NITDA, who is also a youth, praised Nigerian youngsters for their perseverance, passion, and use of technology in their numerous entrepreneurship endeavors for the growth of Nigeria’s economy.
“Nigeria’s entrepreneurship dexterity is evidenced by the fact that Nigerian entrepreneurs, particularly the youth, continued to deliver on innovation and promote inclusion, resulting in positive socio-economic impact and economic progress,” he said. Indeed, business owners are and always will be the foundation of the Nigerian economy.
He pledged that the Federal Government would provide the necessary infrastructure, policies, and initiatives to create an environment that would encourage young Nigerians to make their impressive entrepreneurial strides.
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According to Abdullahi, NITDA is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship and Innovation Driven Enterprises (IDEs) in the nation. He also noted that the agency created its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) with a number of initiatives implemented in collaboration with stakeholders to bring the country in line with the best international practices.
In his own words: “Through strategic programs, NITDA has continued to train and equip young, innovative Nigerians aspiring to realize their entrepreneurial dreams. We have been committed to fostering youth entrepreneurship since the beginning.”
The Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support (TIES) programme, the Idea Hatch (iHatch) incubation programme in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Bridge to MassChallenge (B2MC) are just a few of the numerous initiatives adopted and deployed by the agency in support of entrepreneurship and the creation of more IDEs, the NITDA boss said, highlighting some of these initiatives.
The newly signed Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB), which is now known as the Nigeria Startup Act (NSA), was “actualized in legislation by President Muhammadu Buhari in partnership with the Office of the Vice President,” according to NITDA.
He cited the NSA as one of the current government’s landmark accomplishments and urged young people to fully utilize the initiative, saying that the Act would give them limitless opportunities to take advantage of the Act’s innumerable advantages. “The youths, their talents, potentials, skills and capacities should be healthily and sufficiently channeled to the growth of the society. As a nation blessed with young and talented youths, Nigeria can attain economic independence, economic sustainability, and economic invulnerability, through enterprising our developed talents and potentials”, he said.
