Microsoft’s N83bn centre will raise graduates’ employability – FG

The federal government has said that Microsoft’s $200 million Africa Development Centre (ADC) West Africa initiative will support its quest to raise the employability of graduates in the country. The minister of communications and digital economy, Dr Isa Pantami, who made the disclosure on Monday during the opening of the state-of-the-art office of ADC in […]

The federal government has said that Microsoft’s $200 million Africa Development Centre (ADC) West Africa initiative will support its quest to raise the employability of graduates in the country.

The minister of communications and digital economy, Dr Isa Pantami, who made the disclosure on Monday during the opening of the state-of-the-art office of ADC in Lagos, said the country had the challenge of both unemployment and unemployability as a good number of graduates lacked the required skills in available opportunities.

Pantami said, “We need to place more emphasis on skills rather than paper qualification. Paper qualification should validate skills. We have the challenge of unemployment, but there is also the challenge of unemployability, as a good number of our graduates are unable to do the jobs required of them because they lack the skills.”

Pantami, who said the federal government was prioritising emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, 5G/Internet of Things and cybersecurity, hinted that the government would soon begin the implementation of universal licence on all Microsoft products which would allow it to purchase in bulk all Microsoft product licenses and distribute to MDAs that needed them.

Speaking about ADC’s focus for the future, the corporate vice president of the Identity and Network Access Engineering team at Microsoft, Joy Chik, said: “Based on the great feedback we have received from engineering leads working with teams in Nigeria, we are definitely going to hire more engineering talent. We will continue to focus on student and community engagements, as well as investments in Microsoft programmes, that will help us build a diverse team of talented men and women.”

The country manager, Microsoft Nigeria and Ghana, Ola Williams, said the American tech firm had touched 1.2 million Nigerians in terms of skilling, stressing that 370,000 got skilled during the COVID-19 pandemic.