Prof. Isa Ali Pantami,the minister of Communications and Digital Economy,has called for inclusion of digital skills in the school curriculum of African undergraduate students.
He said the inclusion of digital skills training became necessary because degrees were no longer enough to equip the youths for the task ahead of them in labour market.
The minister made the call on Tuesday at the first West Africa Digital Economy Conference themed: Positioning West Africa Digital Economy for the Future, organised by the ministry in Abuja.
He said countries that prioritised the 4th Industrial Revolution like US, Japan Germany, China and India, which are the largest economies in the world have grown their economies through the adoption of digital economy and for Africa to compete globally, the continent must brace up with the challenge of adopting digital skills in the training of youth people to prepare them for new tasks at wor place.
‘‘There is a serious mismatch between the quality of certificate from our institutions and output at work place. The focus is not about certificate but ability to do the job. It is not about employment, the most serious challenge is unemployability of the youth because of that mismatch, when those employed cannot do the job.
‘’If you look at it today in the world, we need a minimum of 8.1m world class cyber security experts, not everybody is needed. What we have today is only 4.7m, so by implication we have another 3.4 vacancies.
‘’Degrees are not enough to equip the youth, they must be supported with digital skills to be able to compete globally. It is because of this mismatch that we came up with this initiative of building a Digital and Innovation Centre in all states of the federation to compliment the degrees.
In this 4th Industrial revolution, degrees are not only needed but skills to compliment them. Degrees must be supported with relevant skills, either soft skills or hard skills. It is only innovation that is the way to go. In addition to that about, 15 digital innovation centres have been built across the states. For this, government is building World class digital and innovation centre in FCT in addition to National Centre for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence’’.
Pantami called on Africacountries to prioritise flexible regulation that would attract investors and empower youth and women with digital skills that would make them job creaters rather than job seekers.
Vanguard stressed that the minister also challenged African leaders to collaborate in the area of skill development. If this is done, he said citizens will not complain of unemployment.
