Can NITDA Catch them Young?
Since its establishment and subsequent mandate to co-ordinate and implement the Nigerian National Policy on Information Technology (IT) ’USE IT’ almost seven (7) years ago, the NITDA is still trying to catch them young. This policy is also the precursor to eGovernment in Nigeria
I am afraid the young has grown already and it is a case of ‘catching them if you can’ now. Whatever maybe the case NITDA will need to double its efforts in order to meet the objectives of the IT policy.
Should we then say that the effort below is commendable?
Courtesy: Thisday
Kaduna is the first port of call for computer appreciation course for children, organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). The pilot programme tagged, ‘Catch Them Young’, is aimed at human capacity building in Information Technology in the country. It started with 100 primary school pupils selected from various government schools within the Kaduna metropolis; and offers free computer education to the children, in addition to free books, bags and writing materials on computer appreciation.
While interacting with the children aged between eight and 10 at the opening ceremony of the programme, the Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhreh said, education gives people, not just qualification to get jobs, but more importantly it creates opportunities and choices for people so that they are empowered in their lives.
She said there was a new realisation that knowledge and information have become the most important currency for productivity, competitiveness, increased wealth and productivity and added that IT has been identified as a major tool in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and other development agenda in the country.The Minister, who was accompanied to the Dialogue Computer Institute, venue of the programme, by the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Bako Zaku, said that the programme provided an excellent incubator for children as IT scientists. “This is a programme under my ministry that is technically supervised by NITDA. The broad goal is to develop and implement a long term strategy for human capacity building in IT for the country and develop a culture for the online, electronic environment to aid future citizen-centred electronic governance in Nigeria. The successful execution of this programme will have a very high positive impact in the learning and application of applied knowledge-based system to our children and will also assist them with the provision of IT fundamentals to prepare for the technological growth and global competitiveness in their career,” she noted.
The Director-General of NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, said, hopefully, the programme would soon take off in all states of the federation and called on parents to start buying computers in their homes rather than a new television set.He described the ‘Catch Them Young’ scheme as a small seed which will soon grow into a big Oak tree and appealed to “well-meaning and public spirited persons and bodies, faith-based organisations, NGOs, states and local government to take up the challenge and join in the ‘Catch Them Young’ campaign because it will be the driver for the implementation of the 2020 vision of the present government.”
Can we really catch them young?
Download the Nigeria IT Policy here
[...] foundation for eGovernment was laid when it adopted the Nigerian National Policy on Information Technology (IT) ‘USE IT’ policy document that spelt out the stategies and implementation roadmap [...]