The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is training no fewer than 100 women on Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills to make them self- reliant.
Speaking at the training on Wednesday in Lafia, the NITDA Director- General, Kashif Abdullahi, said that the training was aimed at equipping the women with ICT skills, in line with the Federal Government’s digital economy policy.
Abdullahi said that the women, who were selected from all the states in the north-central, including Abuja, would be given laptops, ICT facilities and stipends at the end of the five-day training.
He said that the training was designed by the agency to support the economic recovery and growth plan of the Federal Government towards lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
“Similar empowerment training programmes were also held in Jigawa for Northwest, Gombe for Northeast and Ekiti for Southwest, and it will soon be extended to other zones,” he said.
Abdullahi said that the initiative was also to ensure that people, especially women, were equipped with ICT skills, which was key to development in the 21st century.
He said that the training was also to achieve the mandates of the agency, which included boosting digital literacy, job creation and promoting digital inclusion to address gender imbalance in terms of economic opportunities, among others.
Abdullahi said that each of the trainees was expected to train three other women in her community.
Speaking at the event, Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State commended NITDA for hosting the programme in the state.
Sule opined that ICT knowledge was the number one factor that would determine development in the 21st century.
“It is pertinent to state that ICT has become a veritable vehicle that stimulates national economy by creating access to attain internet facilities and skill acquisition, among other benefits,” he said. (NAN)
