Nigeria signs $116m financing agreement with French Govt

Nigeria has signed a $116 million financing agreement with the French Government to support the investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (I-DICE) programme, an initiative led by the office of Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who disclosed this via his X handle, said the $116 million is part of a $600 million financing agreement from a consortium of development partners aimed at creating job opportunities in the creative and digital technology sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Tijani said the financing partners include the French Development Agency; African Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank and Bank of Industry.

The minister said the agreement would go a long way towards repositioning the Nigerian economy for greater exploits.
Meanwhile, Tijani said that the over one million applicants for the government’s three million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme will be made to undergo an introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) course.

According to him, all the applicants are being onboarded onto the fallow platform ahead of the selection of the first cohort of 30,000 fellows.
Earlier in the week, the minister disclosed that applications for the programme had crossed one million and told the applicants to expect the next steps via their email.

He disclosed that some of the applicants, who have received the email and confirmed their registration, are now being onboarded onto the fellow platform, expressing satisfaction that some of the already onboarded applicants are already completing the AI course within hours.

“All the 1m+ applicants for #3MTT are being onboarded onto the fellow platform and sign-posted to an intro to #AI course while they await news on the first cohort. It is reassuring to see many of them complete the course within hours. We are onto something and I am excited watching it all unravel.”

Going by the implementation plans released by the government, the training will be held in three phases. The first phase is expected to accommodate 30,000 people, while the second phase will admit 300,000, and the three million to be completed in the third phase.

The first phase of the program, executed in collaboration with NITDA, will involve multiple stakeholders including fellows, training providers, partners, and placement organizations.

According to the Minister, some of the skills Nigerians would be trained on in the first phase are skills that utilize technology to enhance various roles without directly involving tech creation.

These include Digital Marketing, Project Management Software, Cloud Platforms Navigation, Data Analysis and Visualization, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), CRM Management, Accounting Software, Graphics Design, and UX/UI Design, among several others.