NCC Launches Nigeria First Digital Portal, Mobile App

By Anya C. Anya

The Nigeria Communication Commission on 28th September 2020 launched Nigeria first Digital Portal and Mobile App . The Honourable Minister Of Communication and Digital Economy Hon. Isa Ali Ibrahim while launching the platform said ” The effect of the digital economy is far greater than the ICT contribution shows. The Digital Economy encompasses ICT and all Digital Services, which includes all online activities in financial institutions, ecommerce, online tax payment, any form of online payment, online banking, etc. When we consider these, the contribution of the Digital Economy could be up to 45% or even more.”

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Furthermore” Today’s launch is towards the implementation of the Digital Literacy and Skills Pillar #2. It is a follow up to the Mr President’s flagging off of the Digital Nigeria Programme on the 19th of March 2020 to support Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training for Nigerians.The Digital Nigeria Programme will provide a National Platform for improving the digital literacy of Nigerians and it will enable Nigerians from all walks of life to acquire high level digital skills. It will have a strong emphasis on Skills for Jobs and will include Nigerians in all strata of society, such as youth, women, children, internally displaced persons, people living with disabilities, etc.”

“We are championing a paradigm shift that lays emphasis on skills, in preference to merely having degrees without skills. Degrees are only meant to validate skills. This is a growing trend across the globe. For instance, China recently started the process of turning 600 of the country’s general universities into skill centres. Also, the President of the United States of America signed an Executive Order on the 26th of June 2020 directing the federal government lay emphasis on skills rather than degrees when hiring staff. The curriculum vitae of today should have 2 main parts- soft skills and hard skills.The digital literacy and skills pillar recognises the fact that citizens are the greatest assets in any economy, including the digital economy. It will support the development of a large pool of digitally literate and digitally skilled citizens. We recently provided a platform to support the Digital Nigeria program, enabling Nigerians to receive training in diverse digital skills. As part of these efforts, I earlier launched another online academy executed by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). Over 40,000 Nigerians have enrolled across both platforms since the 2nd of April, 2020”

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On those who made contribution towards the successful launching of the platform, the Honourable Minister said ” I am also very happy to welcome our partners- the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Microsoft, represented by Ebrima Faal, Senior Director, Nigeria Country Department, AfDB and Ghada Khalifa, Director for Middle East and Africa, Microsoft Philanthropies, respectively.The development of our National Digital Economy is anchored on the following 8 pillars as stated in NDEPS:

1. Developmental Regulation;

2. Digital Literacy & Skills;

3. Solid Infrastructure;

4. Service Infrastructure;

5. Digital Services Development & Promotion;

6. Soft Infrastructure;

7. Digital Society & Emerging Technologies; and

8. Indigenous Content Development & Adoption.