The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami says mentoring young Nigerians in choosing their careers will help them to be potential employers and not potential employees.
Dr Pantami said it would equally help them to invest wisely in digital and emerging technology growth.
He was speaking at the maiden mentorship lecture for Secondary students at the Government Secondary School Garki, Abuja, tilted; “An Introduction to Digital and Emerging Technologies.”
”Many students in secondary schools across the country did not get the right mentorship required to determine their career in future hence visiting schools to mentor them is key in driving a Digital Economy for digital a Nigeria,” he stated.
Encouragement
The minister encouraged the youth to imbibe the spirit of entrepreneurship and to be self-reliant, stressing that with determination, interest, commitment, mentoring and consistency they will excel in the field of ICT and any other choosing career path.
“We need to be visiting their schools providing mentorship for them, guiding them so that they would prepare and choose relevant disciplines that would be very critical in the future. So this is why I said let me start visiting schools engaging our youth as part of mentorship guide them and most importantly, change their perception from being potential job seekers to potential job providers,” Dr Pantami stated.
The minister listed some of the benefits of the Digital Economy to include; Creation of Jobs, Potential employers, Transparency, and Ease of doing business.
“With digital skills, you can come up with an application that would provide a job for fifty thousand people in Nigeria, Sixty thousand, seventy thousand. And what you can generate through that, no single institution can easily generate that in Nigeria not to talk of personalities.
So we need to encourage our younger ones most importantly from secondary schools to understand what digital Economy is all about and Digital Economy. And Digital Economy as I said, is not about certificate but skills because a majority of those that are doing well in that area you will discover did not study ICT related courses in their universities but they are just passionate about it,“ Dr. Pantami explained.
The Minister also tutored the students on Big Data Analytics, Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, (IoT), 3D Printing, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality and new career created by Digital Economy and Emerging Technologies.
The Principal of Government Secondary School Garki, Abuja, Mallam Haruna Nabayi appreciated the Minister for making his school the first in the country to benefit from the mentorship program.
According to him, the essence of the mentorship Programme is to boost the School’s ICT Center and encouraging the students to be an employer of Labour through Digital Economy.
“We have already established the ICT center in our school, so this an added value to what we already. We are going to intensify our involvement in the area of ICT, equip and expand their knowledge in this field,” he added.
Source: VON
