As part of efforts to domestic implementation of the National Digital Literacy Programme in the region, the six southwest states have inaugurated a standing committee on digital literacy.
The committee set up in Ibadan on Wednesday by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission has the mandate to midwife digital development in the region.
Speaking on the initiative, Director General DAWN Commission, Mr Seye Oyeleye said the commission was partnering with the National Information Technology Development Agency on the programme.
He noted the committee was set up to leverage on programmes and projects that would support growth of structures and processes critical to the emergent digital economy in western Nigeria.
“We have an ICT digital world at the moment and you will understand that security issues can no longer be tackled by merely carrying guns all over the place.
“In fact in advanced society security is more of sitting down behind the laptop computers in a room and hitting your targets or identifying your challenges.
“One of the things we hope this committee will come up with is a situation whereby we have digital policy for the southwest.
“This will be implementable policy and the state would be able to tap into that to solve security challenges.
“If we are using ICT for agriculture, health and more and more the world is looking away from the conventional carrying troops into the bush to shoot, the world is going digital even in the area of security.
“And I know that some of the things that would come out of this standing committee are implementable ideas that we hope the Southwest states will take upward,” Oyeleye said.
Representing the Chairman Southwest Governors’ Forum Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State was Mr Akinkugbe Oluleye Executive Chairman Ondo State Information Technology Agency stated that the initiative was a laudable one.
He enjoined members of the committee to put in their best in realising the objectives of the committee.
“This is something that is important, it is quite clear that we need to start engaging our youths positively,” Akeredolu said.
In her remarks, the immediate Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnership (RISP) University of Ibadan, urged members to put aside political affiliations, ethnicity and other biases for success.
“We are at the court of the fourth industrial revolution for some people they are even there.
“When you look at Nigeria in general, even from our education, infrastructure, the youth employment, we need a lot of intervention when it comes to digital literacy; digital literacy is important.
“What DAWN Commission has done is to see what are the means of intervention to be able to bridge the digital literacy gap in Southwest Nigeria and that is what we as a committee are charged to do.
“The committee has representatives of each state in the Southwest states and we have technocrats. This is actually a town-gown committee where you have entrepreneurs and experts.
“What we are trying to do is to identify gaps and see how we can bridge those gaps to increase the employment of the youths, ease of doing business, equipping teachers on digital skills for classroom learning because what you don’t have you cannot give.
“We will be looking at ways where we can intervene in the educational sector right from kindergarten to tertiary level so as to make Southwest compete favourably when it comes to digital literacy globally, ” Adeyemo said.
In his goodwill message, the Director General, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Oyo State said the Federal Government had decided to move into the digital economy era and all its agencies had keyed into that.
“NCC has looked at the area of licensing that will promote the digital economy and even one that seeks to launch satellites into orbit.
“It is a good concept to work with the region as Endsars has shown that youths need to be engaged positively.
“NCC is willing to contribute to the success of the initiative, ” Arowosafe said.
(NAN)
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