National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) has asserted that Nigeria’s industrial growth and technology advancement is imminent and inevitable.
The director general/chief executive officer of NACETEM, Dr Olusola Odusanya, declared this at the launch of the NACETEM Academy in Abuja on Tuesday at the ongoing 8th Technology and Innovation Expo, said the academy would provide Nigeria with an innovation finishing school for both public and private sectors of the national economy.
Odusanya said, “The industrial growth and technological advancement of Nigeria is imminent and inevitable.
“NACETEM Academy has arrayed a growing and significant bouquet of self-paced international skills certification courses that would help these digital natives to excel in a digital economy which promises to be Nigeria’s new oil,” he said.
Odusanya said the rate at which Nigeria needs to produce these individuals would need to be rapid and efficient and intentional as skilled workers ready for the future of work from day one will be in high demand.
He said out of a total of 215 million active GSM subscribers, there are over 25 million youths who need to boost their career, by acquiring new skills, improve their career progression, job mobility and international competitiveness.
“This captive population is young, English educated, and hungry for technology and consumes technology rapidly but require a higher degree of digital literacy.”
According to him, tech advantage is another initiative that has digitised the indigenous Igbo apprenticeship scheme as well as Lagos GSM village knowledge transfer models to massify the value of its job creativity through the use of ICT to increase the deliverables of the schemes and increase its reach within the general Nigerian populace.
The director general averred that as the software component of the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology (FMIST), NACETEM’s mandate includes technology infusion, training of middle and high-level manpower in Science Technology and Innovation (STI), Conducting STI Policy research, policy analysis and policy briefs to allow government take data driven decisions, establish and run databases on STI, providing access to other STI databanks and collaborate with other countries on STI developments among others.
