Swedish govt seeks collaboration to train Nigerians on ICT development

The Swedish Government has said it is seeking collaboration through the Nigerian Communications Commission  (NCC) to train Nigerians on capacity building to enhance the critical mass of Information and Communications  Technology (ICT) adoption in the country.

The Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Carl Michael, made this known at a meeting with top officials of the  NCC during his visit to the NCC office in Abuja last week.

Michael explained that the training was on Swedish Programme for ICT Development in Emerging Regions  (SPIDER), which was targeted at providing capacity building in ICT emerging markets in African.

He stressed the need to look at the different aspects of security, technically and financially, adding that revolution  in ICT, especially the 5G was crucial and would transform the industry.

“We can connect what was not possible a couple of years before so that it will transform our industry and the  way of production.

“We can see the revolution coming just that we do not know what exactly will come,” he said.

In his remarks, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta stressed the need for  the involvement of women in the ICT sector, adding that there was a resolution on gender equality.

He described it as an important intervention that the Federal Government would appreciate because there was  an important policy among its priority areas targeting to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10  years.

“In our own small way that the capacity building is targeting institutions of higher learning is something that we  have been doing and with the training of the NCC and the press institute.

“So, that will be an average of 10 million Nigerians and you can only lift citizens out of poverty if you give them  skills.

“Skills are crucial to us as an important initiative of the government and therefore I will like the Federal  Government to again appreciate the offer to capacity building.

“We hope that the embassy will continue to facilitate this kind of intervention through the NCC to agencies and  the ministries of the country and other countries within the African continent.”

“We will continue to request for more assistance and we hope you will not get tired of listening to us and giving  us assistance so that one day we can celebrate this collaboration together by making a case for all Nigerians,” he  said.

He, however, expressed optimism of getting more benefits from the wealth of experience from Sweden,  especially being the seventh emerging leading broadband markets in the world.