FG to train 69,000 federal workers in digital literacy

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched a comprehensive Digital Literacy Training and Certification programme for federal civil servants. This initiative aims to empower government employees with essential IT knowledge and skills, ultimately enhancing public service delivery, officials said yesterday.  Over 69,000 federal civil servants under the head of service will be trained […]

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched a comprehensive Digital Literacy Training and Certification programme for federal civil servants.

This initiative aims to empower government employees with essential IT knowledge and skills, ultimately enhancing public service delivery, officials said yesterday. 

Over 69,000 federal civil servants under the head of service will be trained on a weekly basis, covering the entire workforce in nine months.

In collaboration with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, NITDA is providing a 3-day workshop at the e-Government Training Centre, Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) in Abuja.

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The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, at the event in Abuja emphasised the government’s commitment to achieving 70% digital literacy in Nigeria by 2027, aligning with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

Abdullahi highlighted the critical role of digital literacy in enhancing governance, promoting innovation, and driving inclusive economic growth.

“This programme is a key component of NITDA’s mandate to upskill civil servants, ensuring they can implement digital solutions for improved governance and service delivery.

“Today we have launched a programme to train all civil servants in Nigeria. President Bola Tinubu has directed the head of service to digitise all government services.

“And you cannot talk about digitisation without having the people that will drive that. Digital transformation is a journey, and people are the engine room that makes things happen at the ministries, departments, and agencies.

“Therefore, NITDA, in collaboration with the office of the head of service, designed this programme to train all civil servants in Nigeria,” he said.

The NITDA boss said the first batch has about 1,848 civil servants and that they have designed the programme in such a way that every week at least about 2,000 civil servants enrol on the platform in partnership with Cisco.

“Cisco is a big technology company. Anybody that participates in this programme will earn a certificate. The programme is globally recognised, and this will empower all our public servants to be digitally literate.

“So, our target every week, 2,000 civil servants will be enroled. In a month, at least, we are targeting 8,000. And within nine months before the end of this year, our plan is to train all the civil servants under the head of service.

“Then we also want to explore partnering with the state government, local government, and other MDAs so that we can train all workers,” he stated.

He said the programme is in continuation of NITDA’s implementation of the DL4ALL initiative towards achieving 70% digital literacy level in Nigeria by the year – 2027.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office (CMO), Mrs Fatima Mahmood, stated that the expected outcomes of the training are upskilling of the staff to be able to know how to navigate and bring themselves up to speed regarding digital skills and to be able to have a workforce that will be able to deliver better service for Nigerians.