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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has reiterated the agency’s commitment towards supporting young Nigerian innovators.
Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said the IT regulatory agency will continue to champion innovation in the country. He spoke during the opening ceremony of APP-LAB Fellowship Programme held recently in collaboration with Young Innovators of Nigeria (YIN) in Abuja.
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“NITDA believes that our youth must be trained and given the prerequisite skills in order to participate in the knowledge economy and create wealth for themselves and the country at large,” said the NITDA boss. He was represented by Dr Salihu Abdulkareem from the agency.
He noted that the APP-LAB Young Innovators Fellowship Program which seeks to identify, mentor and train young Nigerians for free in emerging technology skills and match them with industry practitioners, will surely create a platform for creating jobs in the IT sector.
He added that the fellowship concept, if implemented properly, will produce team of developers who will become technology entrepreneurs for themselves and other companies in the nearest future.
“Government cannot do it alone and it is encouraging organizations to support initiatives helping to bridge the digital gap. NITDA has been playing a key role in creating various initiative and programmes that support innovation driven startups ideas,” said Abdullahi
Adding: “At NITDA, we believe innovation and entrepreneurship has become a strong catalytic force for economic growth, wealth creation, and sustainable development. We are supporting startups ecosystem in Nigeria for inclusive development.”
He said the agency initiated the startup voucher programme to support viable business idea for incubation in any technology hubs of their choice across Nigeria. In 2022 the agency also launched iHatch Programme designed to refine the business model of Nigerian entrepreneurs through a series of mentoring, lectures and bootcamps so as to enable the creation of viable and scalable business models, “hence, the creation of innovation-driven enterprise (IDEs).”
He said: “the overall goal of iHatch is to establish companies, which are legally Incorporated under (CAC) by young Nigerians, produce minimum viable product (MVP) of their innovative ideas, establish connection between startups and investors, enable NITDA to analyze the startup ecosystem and take necessary actions to improve the ecosystem through government actions and incentives.”
Convener of the APP-LAP and YIN, Mr. Andrew Abu, said one of the challenges in the ecosystem is funding talent but expressed confidence that at the end of the programme, fellows will come up with various futuristic solutions that will make impact in Nigeria’s quest to be one of biggest digital economy nations.
