UK Govt to Train Nigerian Civil Servants on Digital Skills

Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole

The United Kingdom (UK) government is planning to assist Nigeria civil servants in the up skilling of digital skill to enable Nigeria achieve its digital economy target.

The Country Lead and Programme Adviser, UK Government’s Digital Access Programme, Idongesit Udoh, disclosed this in Abuja at the grand finale of the DigitalForAll Challenge organised by Tech4Dev in partnership with Microsoft.

Speaking during an interview, Idongesit Udoh said the UK government had plans in the pipeline to train civil servants on digital skills.

“We have some pipelines activities including up skilling basic digital skills for civil servants, partnering with some specific states on that. More importantly on the policy and systematic framework, we are supporting some state government to develop its own state level digital economy policy and strategy, which is to help entrench digital development at the state level.”

He also said that the UK government had in the past supported Nigeria in some technical areas.

The Minister who was represented by his Technical Adviser on Strategy, Olufemi Adeluyi,

Director of partnership and sustainability, Tec4Dev, Joel Ogunsola, said the vision of Tech4Dev is to foster economic development in Africa. “Our vision is to equip Africans with digital and life skills that foster economic prosperity, financial freedom, and sustainable development,” Ogunsola said.

Speaking about the Digitalfor All Challenge, he said, “The Digitalfor All Challenge is a free digital skilling program and competition designed to drive youth digital literacy across Nigeria and spur interest in acquiring digital skills and certifications via onsite and online platforms. It aims to equip men and women between the ages of 16 – 45 years with digital skills to enable equal access to technology-centric economic opportunities. It’s is a sub-program under Microsoft’s Emerging Market Model Initiative, implemented in Nigeria by Tech4Dev.”