NITDA has announced a major plan to train 50 million Nigerians and increase the country’s digital literacy rate to 70 percent by 2027. This initiative is part of Nigeria’s wider effort to strengthen the digital economy, support innovation, and boost national productivity through skills development. The agency believes the programme will help the country compete better in the global digital economy and attract more technology-driven investment.
Speaking in Abuja during the closing session of the Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition (DNICE 2025), the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, explained the government’s strategy. The conference, themed Innovation for a Sustainable Digital Future: Accelerating Growth and Inclusion, highlighted the need for digital skills to support economic growth and digital transformation.
Abdullahi said the programme focuses on education, the public service, and the informal economy. According to him, NITDA has designed a structure that includes curriculum development, teacher training, civil servant capacity building, and community-based initiatives to expand digital skills across the country.
“So we started with a baseline of 50 percent as of 2024. So we are building and our target is to reach 70 percent by training 50 million Nigerians by 2027,” he said.
He added that the agency has partnered with the Ministry of Education to embed digital literacy in schools nationwide. “We have developed a curriculum for digital literacy and skills, and the President has approved the implementation of that. Now we are training teachers across the country on how to start teaching digital literacy and skills in all our schools, from kindergarten to tertiary institutions,” Abdullahi said.
