20, 000 Nigerians to Gain ICT Skills

• As FG Commences N-Power, N-Knowledge Programme
• Beneficiaries from Six Geopolitical Zones

The commencement of the N-Power, N-Knowledge programme of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development marks another milestone in the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) of the Federal Government.
Coming on the heels of the on-boarding of the Batch C of the N-Power programme, this specialized empowerment programme will not only add to the number of youth taken off the unemployment queue but holds the prospect of creating a large pool of successful tech entrepreneurs.
For Sadiya Umar Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management who made the announcement through a statement by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Bashir Nura Alkali, this must be a dream come true, given her avowed commitment to the success of the N-Power programme.
Announcing the commencement of the programme, on behalf of the Minister, Alkali had said, ”N-Knowledge is a component of the N-Power Programme focused on equipping young Nigerians with relevant skills and certification to become competent workers, innovators and entrepreneurs prepared for both the domestic and global digital job market. N-Power (N-Knowledge) programme will upskill 20,000 young Nigerians on the global radar as exporters of world-class services and content in the creative and information technology sectors”.
The Permanent Secretary noted that the training component is targeted at developing competencies of the youth in software development and Hardware training which will be catalyzed to make Nigeria compete in the outsourcing market for software development.

According to him, “it will develop the skills and capacities along the skills set in the value chain of mobile apps and website development while boosting the talent development effort for the growth of information technology industry in Nigeria”.
“The programme consists of centralized in-camp training for 3 months with a 6-month apprenticeship across the 6 geo-political zones. A total of 20,000 beneficiaries will participate in the programme”.
He added that at the end of the programme, qualified trainees would be awarded their certificates and attestations. The trainees will be introduced to different schedules that will definitely make them more informed and ready for the global competitions in the global market. This is significant because the trainees will be introduced to Life-Skills and attitude re-orientation, work ethics while rules of engagement are also exposed to them.
On a happy note, another 500, 000 young Nigerians would further benefit under the Batch C of the N-Power, following an earlier approval by President Muhammadu Buhari increasing the figure to accommodate more persons.
Over time, many graduates of the N-Power programme have taken to self-employment in areas such as farming, fisheries and animal husbandry and technical services, among others.
It will be recalled that, last August, Sadiya Farouq had flagged off the on-boarding of the Batch C of the N-Power programme comprising of 500, 000 beneficiaries, drawn from the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. Prior to that, 500, 000 beneficiaries had passed through the Batches A and B of the programme.
The N-Power is the job creation and economic component of the NSIP for young unemployed Nigerians which provides temporary income-generating opportunities. In addition, it affords them the opportunity to scale up their skills while working under mentors in various fields of human endeavor. The N-Power programme is designed for Nigerian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 to ensure that each participant learns and practices most of what is necessary to find or create work. Graduate participants are paid a monthly stipend of N30, 000 while non-graduates participants whose programmes run for an average of nine months, receive N10, 000 each.
With the addition of the N-Knowledge strand, the N-Power programme now consists of seven categories namely: N-Teach, N-Health, N-Agro, N-Build, N-Creative, N-Tech and N-Knowledge. N-Teach and N-Health are available to only graduates who must have completed the mandatory one year NYSC programme. On the other hand, N-Agro, N-Build, N-Creative and N-Tech are available to both graduates and non-graduates.