By Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is worried that skills upscaling in Africa is not translating to economic opportunities for her people across the continent.
Inuwa who drawing attention of the global audience of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81) to the plight of the joblessness in the continent while participating in a panel session, “Scaling Africa’s Digital Workforce,” under the Digital Skills and Talent Session of “Nigeria at Scale: Building Digital Systems for Shared Prosperity,” identified three critical barriers confronting young people as they move from training to work.
According to him, the trust gate, where employers struggle to verify capabilities; the platform and connectivity gate, where lack of devices, affordable connectivity, reliable power and access to opportunity limits participation; and the demand gate, where the number of people entering the labour market significantly exceeds available formal jobs.
He challenged policymakers and ecosystem leaders to move beyond counting the number of people trained and focus instead on whether digital skills are being converted into productive work, enterprise and improved livelihoods.
Inuwa while noting what the Nigerian Government has been doing about job creation stated that NITDA and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy are deliberately connecting digital literacy, advanced technical skills, connectivity, cloud infrastructure and job creation as parts of one digital transformation agenda.
He explained that the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme, which has trained more than 143,000 fellows across three cohorts, alongside the Talent Registry designed to connect verified skills with employers.
He recalled that the Project BRIDGE, envisioned to deploy at least 90,000 kilometres of open-access fibre and extend Nigeria’s national backbone to about 125,000 kilometres, reaching all 774 Local Government Areas.
The initiative, he noted is expected to expand connectivity to thousands of schools, healthcare facilities and local government offices, helping ensure that talent developed outside major cities can participate in the digital economy.
The NITDA boss added that through the NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0), basic digital literacy every Nigerian now has the foundational capabilities to participate safely and confidently in the digital economy.
Speaking further, he said that Africa’s digital workforce strategy cannot be built solely around formal employment. however, digital inclusion must encompass traders, artisans, farmers, mechanics, transport operators, food vendors and other entrepreneurs whose livelihoods can be transformed through technology.
For these Nigerians, he explained, digital skills should translate into practical capabilities: using smartphones productively, accepting digital payments, marketing through social media, finding customers and suppliers, maintaining digital records, protecting themselves from fraud, accessing digital services and using AI tools to increase productivity.
“Fund the corridor, not another classroom, verifiable credentials and first-paid-work placement, because Africa’s young people are stuck in the gap between the certificate and the paycheck”, he noted.
He was joined by the Mark Doumba, ICT Minister of Gabon, and Oji Udezue, Product Leader and Investor, former Chief Product Officer at Calendly and Typeform. The conversation was moderated by Joannes Paulus Yimbesalu, Founder, Nanaade and Africa Skills Alliance; Fellow, Social Innovation + Change Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School.
