FG to set up inter-ministerial task team on digital economy

The federal government has announced plans to set up an inter-ministerial task team comprising the ministries of labour and employment, communication and digital economy, youths and sports, women affairs and other relevant ministries to fully key into the emerging digital economy to maximize the abundant opportunities available to young people.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige made this known to journalists yesterday when he in company of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami and that of Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare received in audience, a high level mission from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The two international partners are in Nigeria in respect of the partnership for the creation of decent jobs and entrepreneurship through the global framework for digital skills facilitation for youths in Africa.

While noting that the inter-ministerial and agency synergy is imperative in line with recommendations of the National Economic Advisory Council to the President, Ngige said that gone are the days when ministries and even parastatals within ministries work in silos, and leave a huge gap in achieving set goals in youth employment.

“The era of working in silos is over. That’s why the three ministers are here. This is one of the recommendations of the National Economic Advisory Council to the President; that there is a lot of working in silos.

“You see the ministry of sports, digital economy, technology and even parastatals within some ministries duplicating efforts on different and at times contrasting programmes on skills and empowerment. We are now harmonizing everything so as to work in synergy to achieve the desired goals,” he declared.

Ngige commended the visiting joint ILO-ITU delegation which is supported by the Africa Union and African Development Bank, emphasizing the need for the exercise to critically address the peculiar needs of countries against a one-size-fits-all module that may end up producing quick fixes and no sustainable successes.  

The minister also implored the team to target the abundant but misplaced digital literacy and skills of Nigerian youths, and turn them into legally productive digital ventures as a sure way to arrest the surging incidence of cyber-crime.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Pantami expressed the preparedness of Nigeria to pull through from the traditional to the digital economy, utilizing the partnership of the private sector to create jobs and lift 100 million Nigerians from poverty in 10 years, in line with the vision of the President.  

The minister gave an overview of the strategic pillars of the Nigeria’s digital economic vision as well as its goals, saying the focus was to leverage on the emerging digital capacities to churn out employers of labour through an appropriate alignment of certificates with skills.

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He harped on the centrality of ICT to development in other sectors.

The Minister of Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare, commended the initiative, but however raised observations on its sustainability.

He said Nigeria has had such opportunities in the past, but young people after acquiring such skills, return to the job market and therefore, called for stronger commitment to ensure youths are not only empowered, but made investors.

Earlier, the ILO Regional Director for Africa, Cynthia Olajuwon, who led the team, said that “Africa’s growing youth population and the continent’s transition to digital economy represents a huge opportunity to bolster African economies while addressing important levels of unemployment and working poverty among young people.”  

She said that the programme: “Boosting decent jobs and enhancing digital skills for youths inAfrica’s digital economy,” is a contribution to the 2020 agenda for Sustainable Development and part of call for action adopted by the 2012 international labour conference. 

Olajuwon listed the aims of the programme to include job creation and entrepreneurship opportunities, investment in youth digital skills as it relates to supply as well as engendering private and public employment services for the digital era.