FG Committed to Boosting Digital Entrepreneurship among Youths – NITDA DG
TECHDIGEST – The director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullahi, has restated the commitment of the federal government to implementing programmes to improve digital entrepreneurship and increase start-up businesses among the youth.
Abdullahi, said this during the opening of the National Innovation, Research and Software Summit (Innovation Challenge 2021) organised by the National Association of Computing Students (NACOS) in collaboration with the Financial Services Innovators (FSI) tagged “TechonDemand Hackathon”.
Speaking on the theme “Technology Renaissance For Innovation and Productivity” during the event held at the Nile University of Nigeria in Abuja, the NITDA boss encouraged the youth to make an impact by turning their innovations into products and services that can be commercialised.
“We have so many initiatives to help those with ideas to develop soft skills, to expose them to networks, to ecosystems, and access to funding. We want to challenge the Nigerian youth to come up with solutions to the problems of the country. This is the only way to create prosperity,” he said.
He said that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government through infrastructure and policies was diversifying the economy by creating the enabling environment for the youth to thrive in their software development and create indigenous content.
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Abdullahi added that the agency was collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other agencies of government to get funds for the youth to develop their products, adding that they are working with universities to develop and build start-ups.
He said that the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a “golden opportunity for Nigerian youths to use technology to come up with new businesses, products and services”, adding that the NITDA Action Plan 2021-2024- has mapped out these strategies through its developmental initiative, which the youth can key into.
In his remarks, president of the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), Professor Adesina Sodiya, noted that the NCS remains committed to promoting rapid national growth by providing necessary technical and professional support to technology providers.
Speaking earlier, the national president of NACOS Olamilekan Toyeeb Abolade, said the innovation challenge is to develop an interconnected, integrated, and all-inclusive ecosystem of the Nigerian citizens with the requisite services that enable individuals, retailers, small businesses to transact with one another seamlessly daily using digital channels.
“Our primary goal is to empower a new crop of innovative and creative young men and women, who will add technological value to every sector of the economy and solve real-life problems.
“We are geared towards building a generation of new technopreneurs, entrepreneurs, software developers, and an army of skilled and employable young people matching industry needs in priority sectors,” he said.
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