The First Lady of Nigeria, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu says no fewer than 1.2 million students will benefit from the first phase of the students education loan scheme which commenced on May 24.

Mrs Tinubu disclosed this in the State House on Sunday during the Nigerian Youth Celebration, with the theme “Becoming: Pathway to Success, in commemoration of the first anniversary of President Tinubu’s administration.

In her words, “It is noteworthy that the administration of President Tinubu has been exceptionally youth-friendly.

“The administration has demonstrated commitment to youth inclusion in empowerment and governance.

“This is evident in the unprecedented appointment of young leaders as Ministers, heads of agencies and parastatals, as well as the full implementation of the Students Loan Scheme.”

Mrs Tinubu expressed her commitment to supporting and encouraging the youths, particularly through her Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI).

She said the RHI is geared towards complementing the efforts of Mr President, in the areas of education, agriculture, social investment and economic empowerment.

The first lady further assured the youths that the current administration would do its best to make Nigerians happy.

Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE, said President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office has significantly influenced the technology sector and established Nigeria as a global hub for talent.

Inuwa said that President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which had eight priority areas, propelled the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to recreate her five key areas of development.

He said the eight priority areas included reforming the economy, strengthening national security, boosting agriculture, unlocking energy and natural resources, and enhancing infrastructure and transportation.

Others were focusing on education, health, social investment, accelerating diversification through industrialization, digitization, creative manufacturing & innovation, and improving governance.

Hinging on the seventh priority area, which was accelerating diversification through industrialization, digitization, creative manufacturing, and innovation, Inuwa said the agency came up with a strategic roadmap and action plan as a guide.

The director-general said the roadmap focused on eight areas, which were fostering digital literacy and cultivating talent, building a robust technology research ecosystem, and strengthening policy implementation and legal frameworks.

“Other action plans included promoting inclusive access to digital infrastructure and services, strengthening cybersecurity and enhancing digital trust, and nurturing an innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“In achieving the digital literacy action plan, we developed the National Digital Literacy Framework, which was targeted at achieving 95 per cent digital literacy by 2030.

“We floated a mid-term target of achieving 70 per cent by 2027, which within the four years of President Tinubu’s administration, should be achieved.

“We have also collaborated with the Ministry of Education to review schools’ curricula and infuse digital literacy in our formal education system.

“We had other initiatives targeting women, children, people with special needs, artisans, and civil servants, so we can carry everyone to achieve that 95 per cent digital literacy,’’ he said.

On the second pillar, he said the agency had forged collaborations both locally and internationally to enable it to engage in research and development that could drive national security.

On the third, Inuwa said the agency was working on and reviewing the Digital Public Infrastructure Standard, BlockChain Policy, and Data Strategy to promote open data and innovation.

“On promoting access to digital infrastructure and services, we have so many initiatives to reach the underserved and unserved communities and connect citizens so that everybody will be part of this digital revolution.

“We also signed an agreement with Cisco, where we will work together to design digital learning hubs to be implemented across the country.

“We will co-design, co-create, and execute all the initiatives together, and that will bring other development partners and government agencies to be part of it,’’ he said.

The NITDA boss said the agency created awareness programmes, hackathons, engagement with citizens, collaboration with other countries, ministries, departments, and agencies in Nigeria to strengthen cyberspace, and shared intelligence and analysis reports.

On nurturing innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystems, Inuwa said the agency had been encouraging talents to build digital offerings in the country.

“Under this roadmap, we have identified the Nigerian Start-up Act as a tool to provide a legal and institutional framework to promote innovative start-ups.

“We launched the start-up portal about four months ago; we have invited start-ups to register, and we have over 12,000 start-ups that have registered, and we are doing the labelling.’’

The NITDA boss explained that the labelling was a process whereby all start-ups could register for easy identification and to know their strengths and weaknesses.

He also recalled that the Federal Executive Council, on May 14, approved the use of the Nigerian facility in California, U.S.A., to be the Nigerian start-up house.

Inuwa added that the facility would promote technology transfer between the Nigerian start-up ecosystem and the US start-up ecosystem.

On fostering strategic partnerships and collaboration, he said the agency was synergizing with relevant stakeholders to ensure that efforts made in the ecosystem had an impact.

On the eight pillars of cultivating a vibrant organisational culture and agile workforce in NITDA, he said the agency needed to be on par with technology trends, hence the continuous in-house training.

“We started with the culture of reorientation and cultural assessment, and we believe we have made significant steps.

“Formerly, NITDA had about 90 per cent of its workers from the mainstream public service, but today we are more like a private sector when it comes to efficiency and productivity,’’ he said.

Inuwa added that the agency was committed to making the remaining years of President Tinubu successful by ensuring Nigerians were carried along to derive the benefit of the digital economy.

He encouraged Nigerians to be patient with the administration, adding that the government was taking steps to ameliorate the economic hardships of the people.