By Chimezie Godfrey
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world in commemorating the 2021 Universal Children’s Day, the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, has donated brand new laptops and desk computers to students as part of efforts at improving and standardising smart digital education in the country.
The Director General National Information Technology Development Agency Mallam Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, said the gesture to the Nigerian students was borne out of the Agency’s strategic approach to developing emerging technology in Nigeria.
The 2021 Universal Children’s Day celebration was organised by the Children of Africa Leadership and Values Development Initiative (CALDEV) in Abuja.
The NITDA boss who was ably represented by the Director Information Technology and Infrastructure Solutions ITIS, Dr Usman Gambo Abdullahi, noted that the younger generation holds the future of this Country.
Mallam Kashifu stated that in realization of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda of diversifying the nation’s economy, the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy FMoCDE was able to secure the approval of the Federal Executive Council for the implementation of the new National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria with a focus on Emerging Technologies and Innovations.
“Technology drives everything, in realization of that, NITDA shifted its intervention to education sector and students in particular, with a view to encouraging their technological and innovative ideas,” he said.
He further disclosed that, since NITDA was created twenty years ago, its intervention were spread across the 774 local government areas in the country, by establishing learning centres to cater for research and other developing emerging technologies.
The NITDA boss assured Nigerian students of the Agency’s commitment towards providing IT infrastructures that would aid and support emerging technologies to students in Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and schools for people with Special Needs.
Earlier, Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila said that deliberate efforts must be made to prepare the Nigerian children and youth to become the desired leaders of tomorrow.
The Speaker noted that, equipping the students with necessary technology is one of the surest ways of securing the future of the country, giving people with multiple ideas the opportunity to be at the very top of governance.
Gbajabiamila, also called for continuous investment in the education of the Nigerian youth particularly in technological advancement, to enable conformity with global transformational trends.
“Technology has changed our world, we no longer exist in communal or national silos but as part of a braid fabric of humanity in a global village where opportunities and challenges abound,” he commented.
Gbajabiamila described the impact of emerging technology as the opening of a new world where a child with computer and internet connection in Lagos can compete for jobs in Texas or Bombay.
“Our job as leaders he emphasised is to ensure that every Nigerian child is educated and empowered to compete and succeed in this global market place of ideas and talent,” he said.
