The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr ‘Bosun Tijani, on Thursday’s episode of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, said that technology companies now look for “makers” and not necessarily certificate holders.
“Companies today are companies who make stuff; they are looking for makers, not just people with certificates and what that means is that a lot more young people today are getting well-paid jobs without being into an academic institution,” he said.
The minister said though he is an advocate of formal education being a doctorate holder, youths should embrace both traditional academic learning and modern skill acquisition.
Dr Tijani also mentioned that the Federal Government has plans to establish a hardware training centre in Aba in Abia State. He said the government is exploring partnerships with related agencies and bringing together some of the country’s brightest minds with expertise in hardware.
“We are bringing some of the top minds that we know that are from Nigeria that have been working with hardware together. We have actually crafted a path on how we will invest in what is happening in Aba and our vision is that in the next couple of months.
“We can actually set up a centre that is focused on hardware production when it comes to tech and that centre is not going up be there to duplicate what’s being done. It’s going to focus on building new technology exposing business people in that region and how they can leverage technology to do what they can do better and also groom and train a lot of talents,” he said.