By Ijeoma Olorunfemi
The Federal Government on Friday launched the National Digital Literacy Framework (NDLF) to boost digital skills and export of technology.
The launch of the NDLF, was championed by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The NDLF was targeted at creating universal access to digital literacy education for all,promote diverse participation in the digital economy,bridging gender and socio-economic digital divide,among other objectives.
Dr Williams Alo, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, while launching the framework, said during the first,second,third industrial revolutions, African countries remained at the backstage of technological development.
Alo said that the 4th Industrial revolution had presented the opportunity for Africa to be at the forefront of global revolution.
“We can do so by leveraging on our human resources and innovation using of digital technologies to disrupt traditional industries and address some of the biggest global challenges.
“Nigeria, has an advantage far above many other countries, that is if we utilise our abundant human resources, able youths that constitute about 75 per cent of the population of our country.
“Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology to all areas of work and businesses which is fundamentally changing the mode of operation to deliver better value to citizens and customers’ information,” he said.
Accroding to him,achieving digital transformation will take a collective commitment by all stakeholders to massively scale up resources dedicated to the building foundation and drive the digital economy.
He recalled that Nigeria’s digital transformation started gaining momentum over 20 years ago with the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, which was positioned as the largest mobile market in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Alao further said that the digitalisation of key operations in Nigeria Civil Service such as the use of National Identification Number,Single Treasury Account,the Integrated Personnel Pay Information System, had enabled the Nigeria government to improve public service delivery, save costs and fight corruption.
“The Federal government is championing a paradigm shift in the country and leveraging on technology to give preference and priority to proven skills over paper qualifications,” he said.
Mr Kashifu Inuwa, Director-General of NITDA,recalled that India leveraged on their digital literacy framework to increase their Silicon Valley workforce to six per cent.
Inuwa said: “This document is going to be a paradigm shift in everything we do it is going to set the stage for us to review all our curriculum from the kindergarten to university.”
He said that part of the objectives included universal access to digital literacy,skills development and inclusive participation.
“To achieve this we are developing the Digital Gender inclusion strategy, to ensure that the Nigerian women are not left behind,” he said.
The director-general recalled that researches by McKinsey and Korn Ferry, respectively,projected that there would be job deficits in the digital space in the near future.
Inuwa added that it was necessary for Nigeria to position itself to bridge the gaps.
“As we position ourselves, we can capture this value and become the global talent factory because we have more competitive advantage over India in terms of our young population, the English speaking people, our geographic location, and many more,” he said.
Dr Amina Sambo-Magaji, acting Director, Digital Literacy and Capacity Building, while presenting the overview of the framework, said it was developed following the Digcomp of the EU and the UNESCO Digital Literacy Global Framework.
She said that Digcomp was an EU-wide framework for framing digital skills policy, developing and measuring digital competence.
Sambo-Magaji said that NDLF had six competence areas and 23 competences which included safety online and password protection, among others.
The director added that the framework would guide policy makers for the benefit of the citizens.(NAN)
