The Bank of Industry (BoI), African Development Bank AfDB and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have partnered to drive digital literacy in Nigeria.

Speaking at the Bank’s Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, the managing director, BoI, Olasupo Olusi explained that with a youthful growing population and increasing urbanisation, activities in the digital and creative sector have continued to increase and it is imperative to further drive productivity in the Nigerian economy.

According to him, the creative and digital economy is central to the economic strategy of President Bola Tinubu’s transformation plan, as the digital and creative sector plays a key role in driving employment creation, reducing poverty and inequality in the polity.

“With such recognition, there is a need for us to reposition our focus on ways to improve the activities and output from the digital and creative economic space. Such repositioning involves the introduction of a transformative initiative such as the iDICE programme.

“In recognition of the critical role of the creative sector in economic development, the Bank of Industry in 2011 created a Creative and Digital Group to provide tailor-made financing for projects and the success story has been enormous,” he stressed.

Tapera Muzira, the Coordinator of Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy, AfDB Group,  also said the iDICE initiative by the Federal Government is timely and strategic, explaining that it is transformative as it would build the systems to support more competitive entrepreneurs powered by creativity and digital technologies.

He said the iDICE programme had the potential to generate millions of jobs for young people, stressing that Africa has the youngest population in the world, with more than 400 young people between the age range between 15 and 35 years old.

According to Olusi, by 2050, close to one in four people in the world is estimated to come from Africa as the continent’s population is expected to double to 2.5 billion people, representing a quarter of the world’s population.

He noted that the multilateral institution, AfDB, was investing in Africa’s youth as a corporate priority in the next 10-year strategy, which would run from 2024 to 2034.

“This is the first time that the bank is shifting investment priorities to young people at the centre of our corporate strategy. The iDICE programme is actually under our Jobs for Youth in Africa strategy, which has a goal to create 25 million jobs and equip youths with industry skills within 10 years,” he declared.

Also speaking, Kashifu Abdullahi, the Director General of NITDA,said its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan was aimed at achieving digital literacy in Nigeria by 2027, focusing on Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain to help the country leapfrog on the global map of knowledge-driven economies.