Press Releases / By ncdmb
The Nigerian
Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has successfully completed the
training of 1000 Cross River State youths on GSM phone
repairs, hardware, software & entrepreneurship development under its Youth
Empowerment Programme.
The training was
held in three locations across the state, namely Calabar, Ikom and Ogoja and is
the sixth in the series organized by the NCDMB, having conducted
similar interventions in Kano, Kaduna, Cross River, Bauchi and Yobe
States which had impacted about 3,900 youths.
Speaking at
the closing ceremony held recently in Calabar, the Executive Secretary of
NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote indicated that the Board
conducted the training as part of its capacity building mandate and
in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to empower Nigerian
youths as leading contributors to national development.
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.
“Herein lies
the huge opportunity for GSM Technicians, as your services cut across all
strata of the society and sectors of the economy. Your ability to demonstrate
resilience also offers opportunity for you to operate in the multipolar
world” Wabote said.
He noted
that most members of the society use GSM phones and would always need
maintenance services, and this meant that the skills learnt by the
trainees would be in high demand. He harped on the need to design a
roadmap towards boosting local manufacturing of embedded systems and mobile
phone technology, to progress from assembly to the manufacturing of
integrated circuitry, electronic components and mobile devices.
The
Executive Secretary 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 in 2002 to 102.4
percent in 2021 and its contribution to GDP increased
from 7.24 percent to 14.91percent in 2021.
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 and encouraged them to take advantage of the acquired
skills in software development.
He also
challenged the graduands to dream big by building on the model to
contribute to the development of a national technology ecosystem that
is innovative, productive, and resilient.
In his
Goodwill message, the Governor of Cross River State, Gov. Ben Ayade, represented by
his deputy, Prof. Ivara Esu, appealed to the beneficiaries not to
sell off the starter packs provided by the NCDMB, but use them
to practice the trade and improve the fortunes of the state.
“The state
is giving you three years tax exemption, access to funds, different initiatives
from the Federal Government and protection from multiple taxation,” he said.
Also
speaking, Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Nigerian
Content Development and Monitoring, Rt. Hon. Legor Idagbo commended the NCDMB
for the laudable initiative to train youths in the state.
While applauding the
Board, he notified that the selection process of the trainees was
random and not apolitical and advised the trainees to practice what
they had been taught, which would guarantee them a chance to succeed in life.
“It is the
mindset that you have that will make you succeed; I want to challenge you to
ensure that we see 50 to 60 percent success from this training,” he said.