EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: NITDA TRAINS YOUNG NIGERIANS ON VR, AR

ALIMOTU SHADIAT

In alignment with the global best practices through the implementation of the present administration’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has trained teeming youths on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).

As technology is getting increasingly accessible to everyone all over the world, Emerging Technologies such as VR and AR have ousted traditional processes by significantly enhancing the interaction between the physical and digital worlds to ease the way of doing things and making life more comfortable.

The NITDA’s Director General Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE while addressing the graduating participants at the closing ceremony of the five day capacity building programme, admonished them to astutely apply the skills learnt in their various fields.

While congratulating them on the successful completion of the programme, Inuwa, who was represented by the Agency’s Acting Director, Digital Literacy and Capacity Building Department, Dr. Amina Sambo Magaji expressed his excitement at the initiative intended to aspire Nigerian youths in exploring all areas of technology.

Driven by the increase in demand for AR and VR technology globally which is exponentially increasing the market value of the technology, Inuwa noted that there are lots of opportunities that can be leveraged on and it was imperative to build capacities of youths in the field to exploit all opportunities the industry could offer.

“You can use these skills to become entrepreneurs by identifying problems and come up with innovative driven enterprises to solve them; use what you have learnt here to create applications to solve problems so that you can also make business and money out of your knowledge,” he stated.

While encouraging the fresh graduates to build on their newly acquired knowledge and skills exposed to during the programme, he advised them to explore other Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) to increase their proficiencies.

“In addition to what you have learnt here, I want you to visit the NITDA Academy and other online courses so that you can create powerful social media handles for yourselves and apply for global digital jobs from anywhere you are,” he concluded.

Giving his remarks earlier, the National Director, National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), a subsidiary of NITDA, Engr. Garba Ya’u appreciated the passion of the Director General in creating capacity for Nigerian youths in areas of Emerging Technologies.

Stressing the importance of VR and AR, Engr. Ya’u stated that the importance of the training cannot be overemphasised due to the numerous potentials it possesses in all areas which range from medicine, engineering and architecture amongst others.

“It is a privilege for you to have this training and I hope you will build on it and do more in this area”, he concluded.

At the end of the programme, all participants were presented with Virtual Reality Headsets and Certificates.