Kano State Information Technology Development Agency (KASITDA) will partner with KALM Community Initiative (KCI), an NGO, to empower 1.5 million youths with digital literacy and skills towards reducing unemployment and harnessing economic productivity.

Bashir-Abdu Muzakkari, director-general, (KASITDA),disclosed this in an interview with journalists at the sidelines of a ‘Youth Impact Forum’ organised by KALM Community Initiative in Zaria.

Mr Muzakkari said the ‘Kano State Digital Economic Policy and Digital Transformation Agenda’ targets 1.5 million youths to become digitally literate between 2025 and 2027

He said,”These cohorts would become digitally literate at the basic, intermediate and expert levels”, adding that of the 1.5m target, 150,000 youths were engaged as a pilot scheme of the initiative.

“Recently, 1,150 youths had graduated from the Kano State Entrepreneurship Institute and Kano State Institute for Information Technology, Kura,’’ the director-general said.

He, therefore, said the state government would have a replication of the KCI interface programme at tertiary institutions in the state.

Mr Muzakkari added that KASITDA would partner with the KCI towards replicating the youth impact forum and cascading the initiative down to the grassroots levels of Kano state.

He said KASITDA was hosting ideas from different parts of the state under a Hackathon programme with an acronym ‘HEAT’, which refers to ‘Health, Education, Agriculture and Transportation’.

Mr Muzakkari explained that the hackathon was initiated by KASITDA in preparation for a transition from traditional government to e-government.

He explained that the HEAT programme would offer job opportunities for the youths in the state; once they offered a solution identified in these key sectors of HEAT, the government would fund it.

“If it is a start-up which KASITDA would fund and accelerate into a full blown company and so far we have received over 200 applications,’’ he said.

Aisha Muhammad, founder KALM Community Initiatives (KCI), said KCI was founded on the belief that while challenge was everywhere, opportunity was not.

She added that the mission was to open doors for the youths especially in technology by providing practical support to those who are ready to learn, build and shape a better future.

“At KCI we have seen the untapped potentials in the minds of the young potentials with dreams but no spark to ignite them; today we are here to provide those sparks.

“The forum provides an avenue for participants (students) to interface with content creators, digital trail blazers, block chair experts, developers towards harnessing the digital economic thoughts within students,’’ Ms Muhammad said.

She said the KCI would collaborate with state actors and relevant stakeholders to cascade the initiative to other parts of the country towards reducing unemployment among the youths.

 (NAN)