THE Federal Government, said it would begin the implementation 
of the Naijacloud initiative in all 36 states of the federation in Bayelsa State today.
The Naijacloud initiative inaugurated in March, 2013, by the Ministry of Communication Technology is expected to create jobs in micro work, e-lancing and programming for the youths across the nation. Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, who stated this yesterday in his keynote address at the ongoing third regular meeting of the National Council on Communication Technology holding in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State said that under the initiative, youths in each state would be trained, adding that completion of their training, the Ministry in collaboration with the State government would establish a monitoring framework to ascertain revenues generated and jobs created from the programme.
Johnson said, “Our demographic dividend implies that the future of Nigeria lies in a productive and engaged youth population. Finding innovative, creative and sustainable ways to providing them jobs and enterprise opportunities to channel their burgeoning energies. ICTs provide a proven way to do that. However, our desired better future cannot be fully realised unless there is cooperation and collaboration among the various tiers of government and other stakeholders. “This requires an integrated approach to conceptualisation and implementation of the ICT policy. Areas of existing and potential cooperation have already been articulated and I know that together we can deliver the benefits of ICT to citizens, the States and the nation.” ICT infrastructure, she said, must be built quickly and cost effectively all across the country, human capital that would take advantage of this infrastructure must be nurtured and developed and products and services that engender the rapid penetration and diffusion of ICTs must be deployed at the national, state and local government level. These actions, according to the Minister, would lead to the creation of much needed jobs not only in the ICT sector but in sectors that ICT enables as well as financial services, health, education, agriculture to name a few.
The Microwork for job creation event under NaijaCloud is primarily owned by the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education’s STEP – B (Science and Technology Education Post Basic) project.
