By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), through the support of the federal government, is planning to provide one million jobs in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Director-General of the agency, Mr Kashifu Abdullahi, said this during the virtual meeting on the submission of report from the agency’s Advisory Committee, mandated to access the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Nigeria’s technology and innovation ecosystem, also known as Tech4Covid19.
He said the team was put in place because his agency knew before hand that the impact of the virus on the economy was unprecedented and that there would be job loss.
Business Post had reported that the advisory committee was constituted in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria last month as one the measures put forward by Mr Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, to cushion the impact of the pandemic on information technology ecosystem.
The team was made up of 10 members and were each tasked with sustainable strategies to help maintain technological progress in the face of the slowdown brought about by the pandemic.
Each were tasked on different areas from provision of affordable internet access to individuals and businesses; develop a framework to facilitate access to financing for tech and tech-enabled ventures; devising modalities for encouraging the development and adoption of digital technology, as well as support policies in line with the Work from Home directive of the federal government.
At the meeting, Mr Kashifu maintained that based on the discussion he had with the Minister, government is targeting to create or retain one million jobs in the ICT sector this year.
He said the FG was looking at many different areas in terms of startups doing agricultural value chains, empowering hubs, developing and implementing the framework of business process outsourcing and other areas, to see how thousands of jobs can be created directly or indirectly.
“I urge the committee to develop a business plan; stating facts and figures on how the IT sector will create and protect jobs.
“What I want from the committee are two things: one for example, you state that we have a 100,000 work force and if the government does not do anything to intervene during this pandemic we are going to lose the 100,000 jobs or if government intervenes by doing some certain things we are going to retain all the 100,000 jobs and create additional 30,000 jobs,” he said.
He called on businesses to approach the agency with facts and figures, stressing that government was open to intervene quickly as job creation is one of its top priorities.
“We all believe that a lot of things will change after this pandemic. As some believe that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will take place. As such, we need to unlock this hidden opportunities or identify the silver lining which are the Digital First and keep businesses up and running,” he added.
He further said, “A lot of technologies will come on board and people will embrace them. A lot of things are going to change and a lot of businesses are going to be powered by technologies.”
Concerning the recommendations, Mr Kashifu assured the committee that NITDA and federal government will do everything possible in their capacity to see that all the highlighted recommendations in the four critical areas are tackled accordingly.
