By BONIFACE AKARAH

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has called for stronger collaboration among industry players, academic institutions and innovation stakeholders to bridge Nigeria’s digital skills gap and ensure that digital training translates into increased productivity and economic growth.

The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, made the call while speaking as a discussant at the MTN Breakfast Session, themed *“When Transnationals Invest”*, during the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit (NES32) in Abuja.

Inuwa said Nigeria needed a coordinated national strategy for digital skills development, warning that fragmented initiatives and the disconnect between educational institutions, industry and the innovation ecosystem were undermining efforts to build a workforce equipped for the country's changing economic needs.

He stressed that academic programmes must be aligned with practical industry requirements to ensure graduates acquire relevant and market-ready skills.

“Our human capital is our greatest national resource,” he said, emphasising the need to align education and skills development with industry demands.

The NITDA chief clarified that the agency’s digital literacy mandate was not to turn every Nigerian into an IT professional but to equip citizens with the digital competencies needed to improve their work, increase productivity and expand economic opportunities.

To achieve this, the agency developed the National Digital Literacy Framework, which targets 95 per cent digital literacy by 2030, with an interim target of 70 per cent by 2027, in line with President Bola Tinubu’s directive.

Inuwa said the targets informed the introduction of the Digital Literacy for All initiative, which seeks to expand digital skills nationwide through collaboration across different sectors.

He disclosed that NITDA had partnered with Nasarawa State University and Cisco to develop learning content based on the National Digital Literacy Framework.

The framework covers six competency areas and three proficiency levels: basic, intermediate and advanced. He added that NITDA was reviewing the framework to incorporate artificial intelligence literacy in response to emerging technological demands.

As part of efforts to integrate digital skills into formal education, Nasarawa State University has made digital literacy a compulsory component of its general studies curriculum.

Beyond training and curriculum development, Inuwa said NITDA was using its National Digital Literacy Dashboard to monitor interventions and track the contributions of organisations involved in digital skills development across the country.

He disclosed that 252 organisations had reported their activities on the platform, documenting the training of approximately 2.77 million Nigerians between 2023 and October 2026.

According to him, the reported interventions covered all 774 local government areas and 14,664 communities.

Inuwa identified Cisco as the leading contributor to the reported figures, saying its educational platforms had been used to train more than 1.073 million Nigerians.

He urged organisations implementing digital literacy programmes, including those operating through foundations and corporate social responsibility initiatives, to report their activities on the dashboard.

The NITDA director-general said comprehensive reporting would improve coordination, reduce duplication and help ensure that underserved communities benefited from digital skills programmes.

He further maintained that collaboration should go beyond organising training sessions to ensuring that acquired skills produced measurable improvements in productivity and national prosperity.

Inuwa urged industry stakeholders, educational institutions, innovators and other partners to jointly identify the skills employers need and align training programmes with those requirements.

He said a coordinated digital skills ecosystem, supported by common standards, reliable data and shared national objectives, would be essential to developing a digitally capable population and maximising technology’s contribution to Nigeria’s economic growth.

•PHOTO: Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, in a group photograph with other participants during a session titled “Inclusive Growth in the Digital Age” at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#32), organised by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in Abuja.