3700 Jobs to be Created from YES 2012 in Lagos says NITDA

Director-General, NITDA, Prof Cleopas Angaye

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has  said Nigerians are not taking the  full advantage of the current global revolution in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

Director-General of NITDA, Prof Cleopas Angaye, who pointed this out in Lagos, however, blamed the situation on existing infrastructure, social economic, cultural and political will of Nigerians, posing major challenge in introducing, implementing and diffusing the new technologies in all sectors of the national economy.

Poised to reverse the ugly trend, NITDA came up with the ICT Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) 2012, designed to train Nigerian youths and equip them with ICT tools that will enable them explore the vast potentials in ICT, and create wealth for themselves and the Nigerian economy.

Declaring the ‘YES 2012’ training programme open in Lagos this week, Angaye, who was represented by the Director, Corporate Strategy and Research Department at NITDA, Mr. Emeka Ezekwesili, said NITDA intended to create over 3,700 jobs from the ICT initiative.

The one-week training, which ends tomorrow, will be replicated in other parts of the country. In Lagos, 100 youths were selected online on merit to participate in the training programme, and same was done in Abuja, with plans to spread it to other states. ThisDay