Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has entered into a partnership with Coursera, an online learning platform, to train 24,000 Nigerian youths on digital skills for a period of three years.
The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, is spearheading this collaboration under the auspices of the NITDA in furtherance of its digital capacity-building initiative.
Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Professor Isa Pantami, called on Coursera to expand its presence in Nigeria, especially in the area of academic where it already has an existing partnership with one of Nigeria’s top universities, Covenant University.
In his words, “we are championing a paradigm shift of prioritizing hard, soft and social skills over theory and this collaboration will go a long way in supporting this shift.
“Coursera is one of the world’s top online learning platforms hosting thousands of courses for some of the best universities and companies and has remained at the forefront of providing the global society with the education and resources it needs to build and maintain digital systems.
“Coursera is in partnership with Covenant University which is one of the best private universities in Nigeria based on their annual rankings and publications which I have keenly observed.
“I have no doubt that this partnership has had a huge impact on the institution’s excellent standing. I, therefore, request that Coursera engages more academic institutions, at least one, in each geo-political zone and bring their expertise to bear within the identified environments.”
As the world becomes increasingly dependent on digital technologies, the federal government of Nigeria in a bid to enhance digital transformation in the country has partnered with different firms/ agencies to foster the development of a sustainable digital economy, with its latest partnership with Coursera.
Before this recent partnership, the government had earlier this month signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with global tech giant, Microsoft Corporation, to train five million citizens on high-demand technological skills.
The World Bank reports that more than 50 percent of Nigeria’s population do not have digital skills, Investors King understands that with the recent partnerships by the federal government with firms to train the youths on digital skills, it will therefore bridge the gap in digital literacy in the country.
