…CHARGES THEM ON CODING
By Ikechi Enwereji
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), says it has trained 859 young Nigerians in coding-related programmes, languages and games.
A number of youths participated in this year’s Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM), Bootcamp for Kids in different parts of the country.
The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, while delivering a keynote address at the closing ceremony, congratulated the participants for completing the 10-day Bootcamp which was held in Abuja, Lagos and Kano States, simultaneously.
He encouraged them to start early in deepening their interest in different areas of Information Technology (IT) and emerging technologies.
According to Inuwa, “Seven out of the 10 fastest growing and better-paying jobs globally are in the Information Technology (I.T) sector. So, I need you all to seize this golden opportunity to start coding early in life, because you need to become exceptional people by having initiatives that can solve problems
Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM), Bootcamp”We want to see games with African characters, games that uphold and promote our indigenous culture and values as well as educational games and many more.”
The DG stressed that the country was working assiduously towards bridging the global talent gap by becoming the supplier of the same.
“We have an ambitious target of making Nigeria a talent global supplier. We have launched some initiatives like training one million tech developers in the next 18 months and the talent gab analysis where we want to get the best line of information about the number of talents we have in the country.
“Then, we will come up with a National Talent Strategy Plan on how to position Nigeria as a global talent supplier”, he added.
Inuwa observed that the Agency is also doubling efforts to ensure that training interns at the National Centre for Artificial intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) come up with solutions for malaria and diabetics as well as other health-related issues
He added that some of them are learning to apply drone tech to improve Agriculture and Security.
Inuwa pointed out that catching them young and spurring kids to make use of the computer, which has become a liberal act would translate to building a career in money-making digital ventures, thereby including them in Nation Building.
The National Director, National Centre for Artificial intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), Eng. Ya’u Garba, earlier, in his welcome address, affirmed that the Stem Bootcamp for kids (SB4Kids) 2022, which was organised by NITDA through NCAIR has successfully exposed the kids to a series of hands-on training in different areas.
According to him, these include, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Extended Reality, Digital Communication and Drone technologies, among others.
“These kids whose ages fall between 8-16 years were tutored and urged to imbibe a passion in STEM in order to create an early interest in digital technologies which will, in the long run, shape their future careers accordingly”, Garba assured.
Some participants who shared their experiences commended the Agency and its subsidiary, NCAIR, for the life-changing opportunity to learn digitally inclined skills and task their minds to see themselves as solutions providers.
Some parents were thankful too for the Bootcamp as they took turns to register their gratitude and recount the benefits of the programme.
The DG, accompanied by other dignitaries presented awards to some outstanding trainees and deserving trainers.
The Director-General later went on a demo tour where he was briefed on the solutions created by the apparently excited participants.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/nitda-trains-859-young-nigerians-during-2022-stem-bootcamp/
About The Author
