Nigerian varsities, others not producing enough skilled manpower to support digital economy —TETFund boss

The executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund),  Arc. Sonny Echono has lamented that universities and other tertiary institutions in Nigeria are not producing enough skilled manpower to transition to the digital economy and service the nation’s population of over 220 million.

He, therefore, expressed the determination of the fund to bridge the digital skills gap between the industries and academy, saying it was unfortunate that even the teaching staff and non-teaching staff do not possess the digital skills to function effectively today.

Echono spoke in Abuja, during the ‘2023 Train the Trainer’ ICT capacity workshop for beneficiary institutions in the North central zone.

According to him, equipping educators and students with proficient digital literacy and essential skills would create avenues for enhanced research, innovation, and collaboration, both within the institutions and beyond.

The workshop is organised by TETFund in collaboration with the Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited.

Echono said that bridging the digital skills gap would help in producing graduates that would be globally competitive, innovative and entrepreneurial minded.

He added that given the rising significance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) across diverse sectors, including education, this initiative holds immense potential to positively impact educators, students, and the overall advancement of the nation’s educational landscape.

According to him, the need for capacity building, internet access availability, electronic journals, database subscription and many others have been identified in various institutions.

He emphasised the importance of digital technology as a way of advancing research for the beneficiary institutions and the nation at large.

Echono hinted that the Federal Government had drafted a policy as a minimum academic standard which would require that graduates possess ICT knowledge before graduation.

He also said that there was a mismatch between employers and skills produced by graduates, hence the need to close the gap.

‘’In today’s world, there is a template on which one can operate.

‘’Even our teaching staff, non-teaching staff and management staff, including the majority of the workforce, do not possess these digital skills.

‘’We at TETFund will do our best to bridge that gap. If we succeed in ensuring that the students are digitally literate, it will make them marketable and create an avenue for enhanced research,” he said.

He, therefore, pledged the commitment of the fund to sustain the initiative to ensure that every institution is globally competitive

The lead consultant, Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited, Mr Paul Chukwuma, said that a number of challenges and gaps were identified through the needs assessment of TETFund.

Chukwuma said that this was what informed the decision of the fund to bridge the digital gaps in the tertiary institutions.

The workshop was organised for heads of institutions and directors of ICT in the North central zone of the beneficiary institutions who would cascade the training to their various institutions.