The Nigerian government says it has received a total application of over 550,000 from across the country for the first batch of its 3 million technical talent pool program.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani made this known while briefing State House Correspondent after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Dr Tijani also said that the Nigerian government is collaborating with states such as Cross River, Kwara and Ogun States and seeking ways to explore the possibility of sharing infrastructure to facilitate the delivery of the training program to the applicants.

He applauded the broad distribution of applications saying it is a significant reason for government’s enthusiasm about the program.

The Minister further explained that in President Tinubu’s administration, technology has become a significant component in the way the country fulfills its responsibilities and transforms public services, however, the effective utilization of technology requires a skilled workforce to drive it.

He added that to harness technology’s full potential for Nigeria, the country needs a highly capable workforce that can support its aspirations.

“And as part of that agenda, if you’ve been following you will notice we’ve started a new project that we call the 3 million technical talent. This is a programme where we aim over the next four years to train 3 million technical talents but also find sustainable ways to put them into jobs. This programme was announced two weeks ago. We’re happy to announce that while we were targeting just 30,000 for the first batch, we’ve actually received an application of over 550,000 applications from across the country. I think the spread in the application is also why we’re extremely excited about this programme.

The Minister further noted that the global trend is increasingly embracing technology, and there is a worldwide shortage of talent in the field.

“We all know that technology under this government is becoming a major part of how we do things, how we reposition public services, but you can’t really leverage technology if you don’t have the talents to drive it. So for technology to truly work for Nigeria we need a very deep workforce that can power our ambition, but the beauty also is that the world generally is adopting technology and there’s shortage of people and talent globally for this.

“So we’ve been in deep conversations with state governors and different partner organizations. An announcement was made last week where IHS one of the local infrastructure companies committed N1 billion towards the programme. We’ve been to states like Cross River State, we’ve been engaging states like Kwara state, Ogun state, where we’re looking to share some of the infrastructure in the process of being able to deliver this training programme to this applicant. I think one thing that is important to note with why we’re doing this is not just another training.

“So we’re looking at this programme as not only providing an opportunity for us to build our workforce locally, but to also become a net exporter of talent, we would like our young people who are technologically savvy to be able to work remotely for companies all over the world. And this is why we believe that this programme is going to become a key game changer in the coming years. The Minister added.

Also, the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi disclosed that he presented a memo to the council for approval on the Coaster roads running from Lagos to Port Harcourt to Cross River.

Umahi also made known that the harvest roads to the Trans-Sahara route, which he said runs from Enugu—Abakaliki-Ogoja down to Cameroon, another road project under phase 2 as well as the Badagry to Sokoto were all approved for financing.

“ So, it was approved to be into finance in a model of EPC + F that’s engineering, procurement, construction and then Plustv + Financing, and so counsel deliberated and approved and then directed the Minister of Finance to expidite action on its own part.” Senator Umahi added