COVID-19: NITDA stipulate strategies to retain 100,000 jobs

In its bid to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has mapped out strategic plans to retain 100,000 jobs and create 30,000 more.

The Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this in a virtual meeting on Friday organised by Innovation Support Network (ISN), at its North Regional Gathering 2020.

The meeting which was in collaboration with Ford Foundation focused on “Repositioning Hubs for Post Pandemic Success”.

“We set up the Tech4Covid-19 committee which has come up with plan to ensure that it retains about 100,000 ICT jobs and create additional 30,000 jobs post COVID-19 era.

“We swiftly initiated several policies and programmes for the technology ecosystem and startups to be able to withstand the impact of the pandemic.

“The agency rolled out initiatives in order to ensure that technology continues to enable innovation and entrepreneurship while addressing challenges of the society,” Inuwa said.

He added that the Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge, one of the initiatives, encouraged Nigerians to come up with innovations that could meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

“NITDA Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Scheme supports startups and hubs across the country.

“With over 130 hubs in Nigeria, we are finalising plans to ensure rapid intervention is provided for hubs and startups based on competence and carefully selected criteria.

“The agency is following up the startups with highly innovative ideas that were selected for further incubation and mentorship and this action supports our local content policy, thereby creating more jobs,” he said.

Inuwa added that the agency’s Startup Clinic also gathered young startups to meet with mentors, successful entrepreneurs, investors, industry specialist, business consultants and hub operators with the goal of solving problems they faced.

He also said that agriculture, as the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, contributed a significant amount to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to National Bureau of Statistics.

Inuwa said that if properly harnessed, agriculture would be a massive employer of labour.

“In order to improve agricultural practices and create jobs, the agency initiated its Smart Agric Project where it engages farmers and focuses on using precision and smart farming techniques.

“The techniques will ensure significant improvement in efficiency and productivity, thereby increasing crop yield, increase profit margin and create more jobs,’’ he said.

He, however, emphasised that strengthened collaboration was needed to attract funding from multi-lateral organisations.

According to him, the synergy will guide stakeholders in designing and implementing innovative solutions peculiar to the country’s need.

He reiterated that NITDA was committed to building capacity of citizens and even more in the COVID-19 pandemic era.