TECHDIGEST – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with Ascend Studios Foundation is announcing the launch of Creative Technology Program (CTP), 2022. The program is aimed at developing and retaining of Creative Technology Talents in Nigeria for promoting career skills and proving job opportunities among the beneficiaries.

“The goal of the program is to enable, nurture and upskill creative technology talents in persons into viable career options; and create an ecosystem that will boost the economic potential of all participants.”

According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing digital skills gap and resulted to millions of job losses – disrupting the global landscape and leaving many with speculations on the world’s recovery mechanism, therefore this level of training is crucial, according to Kashifu Inuwa CCIE,” the Director General/CEO of NITDA “.

Similarly, the President of Ascend Studios Foundation, Dr Inya Lawal, said “We are delighted that NITDA has partnered with us as our goal is to bridge the creative technology skill gap Nigeria has and produce top professionals in Gaming, Animation and Augmented Reality whose work can compete globally”.

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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has embarked on several initiatives to upskill and reskill Nigerians across all walks of life in line with the national agenda for a digital economy- the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).

The development of NITDA Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) is a strategic plan towards achieving the NDEPS.

In continuance to provide massive employment opportunities through digital skills, NITDA have kick started an ambitious project to train one million software developers in the country.

Therefore, the NITDA- Ascend Studios Foundation, CTP will enable the participants gain new skills that will help them take their ventures to the next level, at the same time formulating a strong network for sharing ideas and each other’s experiences.

As the creative economy rapidly transforms the global economic landscape and the technology skills gap between Africa and other continents widen, technology literacy is fast-becoming a fundamental right and a springboard for Africans to engage and participate in today’s world.

The need and demand for creative and digital technology skills is more pressing than ever before. The program will find talents in Animation, Games and AR who will contribute positively to the Nigerian economy and its relation to career/business opportunities within creative technology. CTP is supported by the HOW Foundation, Africa Creative Market, Paramount Africa, Global Wissen Consult, Entertainment IP Germany and the Animation Excellence Cluster in Germany.
Application link: https://bit.ly/2022ctp
Application opens: 3rd November
Application closes: 11th November
The program runs from 21st of November – 7th December 2022

About NITDA

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is committed to implementing the National Digital economy policy for digital Nigeria. Their mandate is to create a framework for the planning, research, development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices in Nigeria.

The priorities of the Agency are Developmental Regulation, Digital Literacy and Skills, Solid Infrastructure, Service Infrastructure, Digital Services Development and Promotion, Software Infrastructure, Digital Society and Emerging Technologies & Indigenous Content Development and Adoption

About Ascend Studios Foundation

Ascend Studios Foundation is the implementing partner for trainings for the Africa Creative Market (ACM).
ACM was conceived to facilitate value exchange between Africa’s creative sector and the world. ACM’s mission is to empower Creatives to scale, by providing the blueprint for establishing commercially viable and sustainable business models. This will be facilitated through capacity building/trainings, providing access to funding, increase creative export and standards; and exposure to the global creative market.

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TECHDIGEST – In order to identify and build the teeming talents in Nigeria’s creative industry, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, has said that Federal Government will partner with Africa Creative Market to train them on how to use emerging technologies, create talents and boost the region’s creative capabilities as well as strategically place it at the forefront of technologically driven business in the African continent.

Inuwa made this known in Lagos while giving a Keynote Address on “The Importance of Tech in the Creative Industry”, at the Africa Creative Market (ACM) event.

He stated that emerging technologies are disrupting the way humans produce, distribute and consume content, and that the creator of content remains central to everything.

The DG affirmed that Federal Government through NITDA, Inuwa confirmed is ready to partner with ACM to create talents and train them on how to use emerging technologies to excel and thrive in all they do, and plans are already underway to train one million app developers in the next 18 months.

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“We are partnering with ACM after this Summit to train you on Metaverse, Artificial intelligence, Blockchain and many more. We are identifying people that need the training and we will get the best trainers in the world to come and train the trainers,” he noted.

The DG challenged African creatives to be part of the crop of people who will create Metaverse, as the days of playing the catch-up game by Africa are over.

He said, “the creation of Metaverse will help achieve three things. Firstly, it will ensure ownership and protect copyright. Before now, you can do your work and someone can take it and share it online without even making reference to the owner of that content at all. But with emerging technologies such as Blockchain, NFT, etc, it will help you to be recognized for your work. If anyone buys that work or shares, he will see the owner of the work”.

“Secondly, it will create a source of income for you. Unlike before, well, I can see even now in the most part of the world, when an art work is created, they sell it to one person and that’s it. But with technology, you can earn from every sell; with NFT, you can collect royalties, whenever your product sells in the market you will get some percentage from it and thirdly, it will take you to the global stage”, Inuwa maintained. 

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Emphasizing on the value emerging technologies come with, Inuwa encouraged the audience to position themselves toward creating value from them.

“There is a lot of research saying that Metaverse will add between five to thirteen trillion US dollars to the global GDP by 2030. So how are you positioning yourself to capture value from this. That’s why we are here today and that’s why the government is partnering with you to help build talents and support the course of building the Metaverse, because it is going to be basically driven by creativity”, the DG said.

The Internet, Inuwa noted, enables viewing of things but affirmed that with the Metaverse, users will have the sense of emersion, and it will help Africans in telling their indigenous stories to the rest of the world while also capturing the needed value.

“According to research, the creativity market or the creative economy is valued at almost six trillion US dollars but Africa is perhaps capturing only 1.4 percent of that value; today in the world African music is one of the best, if you want people to dance, you’d have to play the African music, so why are we not capturing value from it? It is because we don’t own the platforms. So, the only way we can capture the needed value is to be creating and being part of those platforms and allowing African characters to be seen on the platforms,” he added.

While making reference to a report of the United Nations World Mental Health report which says that about one billion people are suffering from mental health, the DG opined that the best medicine for mental health is creativity, as such sued for more creative minds to take up the challenge in innovating for posterity.

“When you create non-digital art work, you can only sell it in a shop or a particular place but with the digital means, you can sell it in anywhere in the world, that’s the power of digital technologies”, the Director-General averred. 

He enumerated other emerging technologies which include Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Augmented and Virtual Reality, noting that they will all change everything and create value.

The 2022 ACM programme focused on training and empowering youths in creative technologies and covered different areas including: animation, games and metaverse.

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