The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) through its Digital Bridge Institute, has trained 11,393 persons in advanced digital appreciation programme widely known as ADAPTI
The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, disclosed this at the First International ICT Capacity Building Conference organised by the DBI, which ended in Abuja last week.
Danbatta said over 6,000 beneficiaries of the programme were teaching and non-teaching staff of universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions across the country.
He said, “Over the years, the DBI has been on the front line of facilitation of the ICT skills acquisition as part of the staff training and development efforts of the tertiary institutions.
“Arguably, the NCC-funded ADAPTI programme has had the most impact in terms of bridging the ICT skills gap of teaching and non-teaching staff of tertiary institutions in the country.
“In the last two years, the programme has received an unprecedented boost following my appointment as executive vice chairman of the NCC.
Given my background as an academic and former vice president of the DBI, I clearly understand the ICT skills gaps of the tertiary institutions.”
He added, “Since my assumption of office, ADAPTI has enjoyed massive support from the NCC with the number of beneficiaries of the programme rising from 2,779 in 2014 to 5,179 in 2015 and reaching a historic high of 11,393 in 2016.
“The tertiary institutions have a major role in addressing the challenge of the current digital skill gaps confronting the country.
Time has come for the radical review of the academic curriculum of most courses to include more ICT contents in tune with the realities of the digital age.”
The NCC boss said the rising tide of unemployment was primarily due to the inability of the economy to create jobs due to the absence of innovation.
Speaking at the event, Administrator of the DBI, Dr. Ike Adinde, said digital skills were in high demand across all industries, not just in the ICT sector.
He said, “Companies in financial services, energy, agriculture, health, automotive, retail, manufacturing, creative services, entertainment, media and more are looking for the ICT experts.
“They all need experts for cloud computing, privacy and security, enterprise architecture, mobile application development, big data analytics, content commerce or digital marketing to name a few.”
Adinde said the DBI had signed strategic partnership agreements with major ICT solution providers and equipment manufacturers for a number of certification programmes.
