In a bid to empower young Nigerians with relevant digital skills, the federal government of Nigeria recently concluded the training of 60 youths in content creation, distribution, and monetization.
Speaking on the training, The Executive Director, National Films and Video Censors Board, Alhaji Adedayo Thomas commended the youths for the commitment shown towards the training.
He disclosed that a large number of them have gotten support in the digital content creation space while noting that they are already maximizing their potential through innovation and technology.
In his words, “I must specifically commend our youths, who regardless of daunting social and economic challenges, have continued to show resilience and push for self-sustenance.
“Some of you have found succor in the digital content space, maximizing your potential through innovation and technology. This is our motivation for setting aside these two days for the training of 50 selected emerging youth talents and entrepreneurs in “Understanding the Modules for OTT Streaming and its Components.”
“This is an initiative driven by the need to attract young minds into the industry to significantly drive employment, and economic growth and create an avenue for interaction between the young and the old in the digital film ecosystem.
“This training has been specially curated just for you. You will be interacting with an array of proven and established industry experts and global industry players. You have a huge opportunity to improve your skills, and secure mentorship and collaboration.
“You must, however, play by defined rules. It is required that you subject your production to the approval of the Board for classification. While we remain conscious of not stifling creativity, we must also be the vanguard for the protection of our moral values as a society”.
The DG further disclosed that the initiative was driven by the need to attract young minds into the industry to significantly drive employment, and economic growth and create an avenue.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Education had disclosed that the country’s teeming youth unemployment is linked to a lack of specific skills required for the job market among graduates. An estimated 4.5 million enter the job market annually with only a 10 percent absorption rate.
Other challenges include skills mismatch between the labour market and the educational system, with over 60 percent of graduates lacking basic digital skills to compete in the 21st-century digital economy.
This skills gap has created a shortfall of an adequately skilled and educated workforce which is one of the major constraints to the growth and development of the country.
It is highly commendable that the government has been intentional about closing the skills gap, as there have been efforts focused on several skills and digital capacity-building initiatives.
