Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, says President Bola Tinubu’s government is committed to training over 1.1 million Enugu residents on digital skills before 2027.

Mr Tijani said this when he led ministry officials on a courtesy visit to Governor Peter Mbah in Enugu on Thursday.

He said the training would be done through the National Information Technology Development Agency’s Digital Literacy for All Initiative.

According to him, this is part of the federal government’s efforts to drive digital literacy across the country and ensure citizens are comfortable using digital tools.

“We are committed to train 1,155,000 residents of Enugu state before 2027 in essential digital skills.

“Our focus will be on artisans, market women, civil servants, students, and other underserved groups,” he said.

The minister said the federal government was investing heavily in digital infrastructure because the promise of a digital economy would not be fully realised.

Mr Tijani said the ministry had received no fewer than 14,000 applications from Enugu residents from the ministry’s 3MTT Programme.

He said it had already trained 1,762 persons and planned to enter the scaled-up phase by training over 150,000 others in Enugu alone.

The minister also announced a collaboration with the Enugu government through the 774 connectivity project to provide internet connectivity to all 17 local government secretariats in Enugu through Galaxy Backbone and NIGCOMSAT.

Mr Tijani reiterated the ministry’s commitment to establishing AI regional centre for the South-East at the African Regional Centre, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

“We will be establishing a joint committee, comprising representatives from the ministry and the Enugu state government, to drive the implementation of these projects,” he said.

Responding, Mbah reiterated his administration’s commitment to harnessing the digital economy’s full potential towards diversifying revenue streams and growing Enugu into a $30 billion economy.

He said the government’s embrace of innovation was evident in its Command and Control Centre, where it had deployed technology to secure streets and neighbourhoods through a round-the-clock surveillance system.

He said the state was also in the final stages of signing a 25-year facility lease with NCC for the Digital Bridge Institute and the Digital Industrial Park.

(NAN)