FG to launch $617.7m investments in digital, creative enterprises

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has proposed November 2023 to launch the $617.7 million Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-DICE) programme to deliver on the promise to create millions of jobs in the technology space. Vice President Kashim Shettima spoke Friday when the i-DICE team gave him an update on the progress made so […]

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has proposed November 2023 to launch the $617.7 million Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-DICE) programme to deliver on the promise to create millions of jobs in the technology space.

Vice President Kashim Shettima spoke Friday when the i-DICE team gave him an update on the progress made so far during a meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The vice president, who gave matching orders to members of the i-DICE steering committee, tasked them to make sure the programme starts before the end of November this year.

Shettima, who also stressed the significance of the initiative to the federal government’s digital jobs drive, said the administration was keen on delivering on its promises to Nigerians.

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He urged all partners in the i-DICE programme to ensure judicious utilisation of the funds, noting that the $617.7 million scheme could be a game changer.

The Vice President, in a statement by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, said “The peculiarity of the challenges we face in the country demands that we have to create jobs for our teeming youths to address the crises associated with youth unemployment. I want to appeal to all of us here to unite and see that this programme takes off latest by the end of November this year.”

Speaking with State House reporters shortly after the meeting, Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, described the project as “very key to the promise of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, particularly to the youth, for the creation of 1.2 million digital jobs.