COVID19: NDA Seeks Collaboration With NITDA

The Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA) has sought for collaboration with National Information Technology Development Agency
,(NITDA) in ICT expertise intervention, and capacity building to ensure the repositioning of the the NDA in preparation for Covid-19 post pandemic era.

The Commandant of NDA, Major General, Jamilu Sarharm while speaking to the Director General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi, during a courtesy call in Abuja said the academy management thought it necessary to visit NITDA and seek collaboration in various notable areas of ICT intervention for the Academy.

The Commandant noted that the NDA with over 2000 cadets realised that things are changing and affecting modes of learning especially during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

” The whole world is now driven by ICT, we want to engage in online training for our cadets.

“we can’t wait any longer than to come around here basically to seek collaboration and more importantly seek for assistance and expertise,” Said the Commandant.

Responding, the DG NITDA, explained that the proactiveness of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in coming up with initiatives geared at repositioning ICT in Nigeria has played a critical role in the diversification of the nation’s economy, and would further reduce the negative impacts the novel Coronavirus (COVID 19) would have had on the digital economy.

According to Abdullahi, Nigeria is lucky to have begun putting in place measures aimed at promoting Digital Economy before the onset of Covid-19.

He recalled redesignation of the Ministry of Communications to Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the unveiling of Digital Economy Strategies and Planning and the Digital Nigeria project which focuses on digital capacity building and digital literacy would go a long way in reshaping our Economy in post-pandemic era.

“These initiatives have helped because they are emerging globally and in Nigeria, what we have learnt from the pandemic or the crisis just made them profound and we are all embracing digital technologies.

” A lot of things are going to change. We are not going to go back to normal life. In terms of businesses, some will close down and new opportunities will come. So we don’t want to be left behind. We want to be part of the people shaping the new normal we are currently facing,” Said Abdullahi

He admonished people to explore the opportunities created by the pandemic to accelerate the trend that will shape the digital economy, and also reiterated the need for people to acquire requisite skills needed for digital economy.

“When we talk about digital economy, we are talking about knowledge economy which human capital is a key enabler because knowledge is what influences the digital economy,”

Citing example of how 25 people became the richest people in the world, and made 255billion dollars within two months of the global lockdown, the DG affirmed that, such is the power of knowledge, adding that NITDA gives good attention to capacity building and also collaborates with universities to produce the right skills needed for the digital world.

He further said the MIT REAP project of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy identified five key stakeholders which the University is part of, with an idea of the corporate world to work with the University to produce the right skills needed for digital economy.

In granting the prayers of the Academy, the DG assured that special consideration would be given to the requests.

“I have looked at your prayers even though you are not specific of what you really want from NITDA but you talked about e-learning, capacity building and ICT infrastructure, we do all these as interventions and we will see what we can do now and those we can plan for next year,” The DG assured.