National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said it had established 83 digital job creation centres across the country to ensure digital inclusion.
Prof. Isa Pantami, director-general of the agency, disclosed this at the ongoing 24th Annual Information Technology Professionals Assembly of the Computers Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria(CPN) in Abuja.
The assembly coincided with the 25th anniversary of the council and the induction of 309 members into the profession.
The conference theme is: “Professionalism in Information Technology; Past, Present and Future”.
Pantami, who was represented by Dr Usman Gambo, the Director, IT Infrastructure Solutions, said that establishing the Information Communication Technology centres was in line with the mandate of the government to create jobs.
He said: “IT is part of our everyday lives and no country can develop without ICT.
“NITDA in 2017 deployed 86 digital job creation centres and has already deployed 83 this year across the country with a minimum of 15 computers available.
“The centres have created jobs for many and are serving as a way of routing poverty out of our society.”
He said that since 2010, NITDA had established over 500 digital job creation centres which were helping to drive digital growth in the country.
Patami said that overlapping of regulatory roles had limited the growth of digital economy in the country, adding that IT projects among agencies of government were done in silos.
According to him, inadequate IT capacity, infrastructure, no patronage of indigenous IT products and services have contributed to the poor performance of IT.
He expressed concern about the country`s lose of huge money to importation of IT products and services, adding that the agency was making effort to reduce and promote local content.
He said: “NITDA is developing the e-Nigeria framework and guidelines for the regulation of IT projects within government framework.
“We are also reviewing the local content guidelines which involve developing human capacity, software, hardware development to ensure that products made locally are promoted.”
He said that the country could leverage on its youthful population to solve the challenges in driving the IT sector.
Pantami added that ICT possibilities were endless but carrying out IT projects needed to be done in a more coordinated manner.
He, however, called on the new inductees to find ways of promoting local content in their practice and abide by the ethics of the profession.