By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has revealed that plans to onboard three million tech talents in Nigeria will be done in phases, starting with the training of 30,000 persons in the next three months.
Appearing as one of the lead guests at Moonshoot by TechCabal, a two-day event organised by the tech publication in Lagos on Wednesday, he said his ministry would apply a 1-10-100 model, which by definition is a three-phase model.
“We are using a 1-10-100-model. We are starting with 1 per cent of our 3 million target, and that will be for the first three months. And that 1 per cent is going to be 30,000 people,” he said.
He revealed that from Friday, October 13, applications would be released for both trainers and those who want to be fellows.
The Minister also mentioned that the 30,000 people would be broken down to capture each state in Nigeria based on a calculation of its population and economic activity.
He noted that after the completion of the first phase, it will move on to the 10 per cent, which he hoped would be the beginning of the project and then further to the 100 per cent target.
“From the 1 per cent, which is the prototype, we move to the 10 per cent, the pilot stage. Once we can get that right, it is easier to scale to a larger number. If Nigeria can train today 300,000 technical talents, we can become the most competitive country on the continent when it comes to training technical talent,” Mr Tijani said.
Recall that the Ministry recently released a 31-page policy document titled Accelerating our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency which outlined plans to boost the country’s economy through the use of technology.
The ministry will collaborate with other ministries and parastatals, including private sector stakeholders to drive opportunities for startups to facilitate the application of technology for enhanced productivity in critical sectors across the country.
The country will be seeking to spread the talent across programs focused on Agritech, Healthtech, Edtech, Mediatech, Cleantech, and Cretech among others.
There are also plans to increase capital raised by Nigerian tech startups by 50 per cent year-on-year from $1 billion/year in 2022 to $5 billion/year in 2027 and increase domiciliation of local technology startups from less than (<) 1 per cent to 25 per cent by 2027.
The Minister also explained that the ministry would launch at least one ministry-led Public-Private Partnership (PPP) pilot programme per sector by 2027.
Aduragbemi Omiyale