The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has disclosed that the Agency has identified universities as key stakeholders in achieving digital economy.
The Director General made this known while receiving a delegation from Yusuf Maitama Sule, North-West University, Kano, led by the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aliyu Musa.
The delegation was on a courtesy visit to the Agency’s Corporate Headquarters to seek the Agency’s intervention in the area of IT deployment and training.
Mallam Abdullahi stated that the greatest resources needed in achieving a developed country in terms of technology, innovations and entrepreneurship is human capital and Universities produce those human capitals.
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He emphasised that there is a need for a close collaboration between higher Institutions, industry and government to enable a smooth flow of information on what is required so that the students can be trained accordingly.
The NITDA said “we drive the knowledge-based economy and we need your support to develop the sector. The higher institutions are the primary place for anybody coming to the workplace as they have to pass through you to get all the knowledge to be in the workplace.”
He explained that “never before has the need for a strong partnership between the industry and the university become more critical as it is today because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria before relying on some many things from other countries but with the pandemic we have realised that every country need to build its capacity internally.”
Earlier, Professor Aliyu noted that the university was at the Agency to seek collaboration and interventions in terms of virtual learning, IT infrastructure and training with the objective of developing ICT education through the University.
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