LAGOS: Muhammad Nadada Umar, the Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), has lamented limited access of Nigerians to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities and practice. The Director-General observed that this situation is restricting the country's youths' employability and increasing the dearth of innovation in the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He made this statement while receiving a team of the Nigerian Association of Computer Science Students (NACOSS) at the SMEDAN headquarters in Abuja. Umar commended the body's efforts at bringing innovation to the educational system in the country. He expressed concern that the Nigerian environment was not yet conducive for ICT use, but with the combined efforts of SMEDAN and other ICT-related organizations the situation could be changed. He further stated, “I believe that on our part, SMEDAN in collaboration with other relevant organizations can surmount our ICT challenges through training on the rudiments of ICT in hardware, software and web technologies to produce a broader scope of development to the country in general.” Umar also informed the visiting students that the agency has established a Graduate Entrepreneurship Training Centre on ICT (GET-IT Centre), which was renamed ‘Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (LIFE). The aim of this Centre is to equip students, graduates, job-seekers and entrepreneurs with ICT skills to enable them run their businesses efficiently. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/fh7Zr Tags: IT, Muhammad Nadada Umar, Nigeria Section: Tech, West Africa
