By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, North

In a strategic partnership move to bolster Nigeria’s standing in the global digital market, the Director- General (DG) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, has reiterated that the country is open to investors and investments, as Nigeria is unarguably inching towards joining the community of digitally driven Nations.

Mallam Inuwa made this known after giving a nod to the collaboration request pitched by Seidor Team led by the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Juan Ignacio Sell who were at the Corporate Headquarters of the Agency on a courtesy visit.

The NITDA DG, who was represented by the Director, Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure Solutions (ITIS), Dr. Usman Abdullahi Gambo, described the visit as historic, stressing that the areas to collaborate on were vast, especially as there were multiple projects that NITDA was driving from organisational point of view and others driven on behalf of other agencies of government.

While enumerating key areas of partnership which include Talent Management, Innovations, Local Content, Capacity Building, amongst others, the NITDA  Director-General informed the delegation that the creation of the National Centre of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) underpined government’s determination to develop a suitable environment for discovering and harnessing the limitless ingenious ideas of Nigeria’s teeming youth population for national growth through the promotion of innovative technologies.

According to Inuwa, “With the actualisation of the centre, the youth segment of the population is constantly being challenged to channel their ingenuity towards preparing solutions that seek to address challenges across all sectors of the economy, immediate and future problems that have global impact”.

“One of the initiatives of the Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr.  Bosun Tijani, is for us to be able to build the capacity of 3 million Nigerians, that’s the 3MTT programme by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy which is expected to generate a pipeline of technical talent in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s vision of creating 2 million digital jobs by 2025”, Inuwa noted.

The NITDA Boss assured the team of the Agency’s readiness to deepen discussions in furtherance of the collaboration and expressed optimism that the partnership would be mutually beneficial to all parties.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation and Ambassador of Spain to Nigeria, Sell, while facilitating the collaborative talks noted that the partnership would deepen the already existing bilateral relations between the two countries.

“We are here to facilitate and we will be following up on your proposal to organise further technical meetings or focus and as I said, we are open to any recommendations because we are aware of the central role that you play in the ecosystem”.

“As for other meetings that the team would have outside the agency with other potential partners in the public sector or the private sector, we will be very grateful and look forward to receiving your recommendations and advice on the best approach to hit the ground running”, Sell added.

The meeting also featured slide presentation from one of SEIDOR’s representatives, Jaume Feuntes, who explained the fact that SEIDOR was a technology consulting company that promoted the competitiveness and the transformation of organisations based on the opportunities presented by technologies and business knowledge, always focusing on the value of the human factor and committed to talent hunt and social development.