The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has successfully completed the training of 500 Bauchi State youths in GSM phone repairs, hardware, software & entrepreneurship development under its Youth Empowerment Programme.
The training is the fifth in the series, having conducted similar interventions in Kano, Kaduna, Cross River and Yobe States which had impacted about 2,900 youths.
Speaking at the closing ceremony held recently in Bauchi, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote indicated that the Board conducted the training as part of its mandate and in line with Mr. President’s commitment to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
He said that empowerment programme was aimed at providing lifelong support to youths that desired to be empowered in high impact economic sectors including oil and gas, Information and Communication Technology, Agriculture, construction and others.
“The decision to sponsor training of youths in GSM repairs is driven by the exponential proliferation of information and communication technology around the globe, which has led several countries to position their economies as leading digital economic hubs” Wabote said.
Represented at the event by the General Manager, Research, Statistics and Development, NCDMB, Alhaji Abdulmalik Halilu, he stressed that the Board’s intervention in the ICT sector and structured collaboration with NITDA is designed to maximize in-country value creation for the ICT sector in the areas of manpower training and design and development of local capabilities in infrastructure, software solutions and hardware devices.
He disclosed that since the onset of the GSM revolution and the deregulation of the ICT sector in 2001, it has brought about rapid growth in teledensity from 1.89 percent to 104.41 percent in 2020 and its contribution to GDP increased from 0.5 percent to 15.05 percent in 2020.
He further charged the beneficiaries to consolidate on the gains and achieve high local content level from the acquisition of GSM phones, hinting that there is a need to design a roadmap towards boosting local manufacturing of embedded systems and mobile phone technology, in order to progress from assembly to the manufacturing of integrated circuitry, electronic components and mobile devices.
He pointed that the GSM training has provided trainees with ample opportunity to harness the potentials in the ICT sector based on the unique End2End training delivery model.
He also challenged the graduands to dream big by building on the NCDMB E2E model to contribute in the development of a national technology ecosystem that is innovative, productive and resilient.
