Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has expressed its commitment to the effective and efficient implementation of the Federal Government’s policy direction in repositioning the youth for the digital era job opportunities through a programme tagged, Digital Job Creation for Youths (DJCY).
The Commission, according its Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, is promoting the initiative in line with one of the pillars of the National Digital Economic Policy and Strategy, (NDEPS 2020-2030), which is to further accelerate economic growth in digital literacy and skills.
Over 2,000 Nigerian youths have, so far, benefited from this programme from the Six (6) Geopolitical Zones of the country while the ongoing edition has 600 youths being trained, said the NCC.
The DJCY programme is designed to enhance the skills of youths across all the Six (6) Geopolitical Zones of Nigeria through customised training and offer of fully-loaded laptop computers with networking devices, to equip them for the purposes of engaging in different digital entrepreneurship businesses that they may chose.
The beneficiaries are provided with free accommodation facilities for two weeks, during which resource persons in digital skills, business development and management, are engaged to retool them with their laptops to re-orientate them towards self-discovery, self-development, and self-employment.
Some of the objectives of the DJCY include to remould youths with other skills with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) proficiency to fit into the digital economy as well as strengthen technical and scientific competences among the youths with a view to creating opportunities for self-employment. It is also designed to improve access to ICT-enabled services such as banking, and strengthen the ICT micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector of the economy.
The DJCY relies on the provisions of NDEPS 2020-2030, which encourage the promotion of Digital Literacy and Skills through “massive training of Nigerians from all walks of life in order to enable them to obtain digital literacy and other digital skills.” Hundreds of the participants in the previous two editions have reported gainful self-employments, using the laptops and Internet connectivity tools provided by the Commission.
It is gratifying to note that the Commission has, through the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Ali Ibrahim Pantami, received the commendations of the Federal Government for the way and manner it had efficiently and effectively designed and implemented this programme for the benefit of the Nigerian youths.
The Commission restates its full commitment to this programme as a result of the positive feedbacks from the previous editions and the potentials it has in enhancing the digital opportunities of the Nigerian youth for the benefit of the nation’s digital economy.