One of the focal points of the Nigerian Information Technology for Development (ICT4D) Plan 2011, developed by National Information Technology Developmet Agency (Nitda), is to promote the development of human capital required in key skill areas for developing information and knowledge based economy to meet with the rapid growth experienced in advanced economies.
Although stakeholders see this step as coming a bit late considering the huge responsibilities placed on the agency to develop Nigeria’s ICT sector to a level that would make it relevant to the growth on the overall economy just as it is happening in developed and emerging countries of the world.
The objective of establishing Nitda by the founding father like Professor Gabriel Ajayi was to move the agency at a break neck speed that would ensure that Nigeria catches up with the rest of the world as clearly stated in the IT policy document launched by him but didn’t live to implement.
Since his death, the agency is believed to have failed in its responsibility of creating the needed conducive environment where ICT can thrive and assist other industries to grow.
Recently however, the agency seems to have woken up from its slumber when it announced plans to spearhead an initiative that would kick-start the ICT sector towards positive development.
Many graduates of its higher institutions cannot find work. Despite an average economic growth rate of about seven percent per annum over the last seven years, a good performance by global standards, wage employment is estimated to have declined by about thirty percent according to a recent World Bank Publication titled Putting Nigeria to Work.
Employers want their graduate recruits to be competent technically in their chosen field. They also want them to come of school well equipped with complementary life skills such as problem solving, reflective and critical thinking, interpersonal and teaming skills, effective communication, character, integrity and high level of personal ethics, self esteem, self –discipline, organizing skills and abilities to translate ideas to action. The problem, typical of higher education in many countries is that these life skills are rarely thought as part of higher education curriculum. Yet as soft as they are, they are no less important in making a success out of school as the specific technical skills in a graduate’s chosen field.
Professor Cleopas Angaye, director general, Nitda, while commenting on human capacity building stated that the effectiveness and promotion of the ICT sector and its enabled services depend on the quality and size of human resource that must be able to compete globally in the digital economy.
Angaye said the absence or low availability of required ICT professionals and skills erects barriers, thus preventing local and foreign investors from setting up ICT driven enterprises in the country. “Initiatives and strategies should therefore be put in place to promote the development of human capital that Nigeria needs for the development and expansion of the ICT sector, as well as digital inclusion for the widespread acquisition of skills and knowledge required for the exploitation and creation of ICT enabled services,” Angaye stated.
Human capacity, according to World Bank, is “a coordinated process of deliberate interventions to upgrade skills, improve procedures and strengthen organisations. It refers to the investment in people, institutions and practices that would enable countries to achieve their development objectives, while its usefulness for development focuses on the ability to leverage and capitalise on the tools and opportunities provided by ICT in meeting their development targets.

Global Perspective
In fostering an information society and ensuring that ICTs are available to all development sectors, many governments have invested in building and improving their ICT manpower and infrastructure. At the same time, many governments realise that bringing technology to the people goes beyond the provision of infrastructure, hardware and software.
As noted by Bridges Organisation: “any technology will be insufficient if people do not understand how to put it to effective use as part of their lives or their work, either because they are not trained to use it, or they cannot imagine the possibilities for how they could use it.
In the last three decades, the socio-economic development in Asia and the Pacific has been one of the most dynamic compared with other regions. With the adoption of new technologies, including information and communication technologies, most of these countries had transformed their economies into leading producers of automobiles, electronics and other consumer goods. In some countries, the focus has been on building the ICT industry, including ICT manufacturing and outsourcing. This explains why India’s ICT outsourcing sector, was expected to generate an estimated $75 billion in revenues from software and services exports in 2010.
However, industrialisation which is a critical result of developed human capacity has been described as an engine of economic growth and development. It is an issue that is lacking in nations that constitute the African continent, which remains the poorest region of the world, where 34 of the 50 least developed countries are located.

African Initiatives
Among the key objectives of the African Union (AU) as set out in Article 3 of its constitution include promotion of research and development with an allocation of at least five per cent of national budgets for human capital investment, especially in technical education, science and technology, entrepreneurship development,  establishment of facilities to train technical, managerial and financial personnel in companies, establishment of strong linkages between industry, national and regional science and technology centres of excellence and research institutions as well as support for start-up companies to exploit R&D (Research and Development) outputs of national and regional centres.
Governments on the continent has in recent years taken a number of steps to meet the challenges of development, to reverse the marginalisation of Africa in the global economy and polity, and to claim the 21st Century for the people of the continent. These include the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) as a strategic measure towards achieving their objective.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has invested in information and technology skills at two regional Centres of Excellence in ICT in Tunisia and Rwanda and in a High Tech Centre in ICT in Mali. These centres train senior level managers, entrepreneurs, government and private sector employees and university students pursuing advanced ICT studies.
To support and promote access to scientific knowledge for African scientists, decision makers, students and researchers, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) launched the “Access to Scientific Knowledge in Africa (Askia)” initiative seeking to provide ways for African scientists to tap into global scientific knowledge and develop indigenous knowledge that supports economic and industrial growth
In building human capacity for the ICT sector, Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), stated that the regulatory authority has embarked on a framework that would pave way for the growth of skilled personnel to ensure a pool of ICT professionals with the capacity to develop innovative ICT applications for development. 
Juwah said NCC has already made plans of upgrading the standard of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) for the training of telecom personnel for the public and private sector  to enhance development which has led to the revolution in the information communication technology industry.
In line with that, Angaye affirmed that Nitda, through its own initiative, would ensure that technology parks be established in the six geopolitical zones in the country, and would also collaborate with institutions of higher learning by including ICT in their studies and also make it part of academic curriculum at the secondary level.
He said this would be in accordance with the strategic ICT4D Plan 2011 which laid much emphasis on quality standard of education at all levels.
Angaye explained that his agency had in 2004 embarked on an ICT enlightenment campaign programme with Uneca to sensitise Nigerians on the relevance of IT education and to national advancement, which is not related to the sector alone, but to all spheres of life. He said Nitda has engaged itself in a published research work that has resulted in the training of 600 youths in different aspects of information technology in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja in order to create the required manpower for the ICT sector and the economy.
Mrs. Florence Seriki, managing director and chief executive officer of Omatek Computers, stated that it is time the country produce skilled manpower that would engage in the manufacturing of IT hardware for the sector, like is applicable in Asian countries where production of accessories are made to grow the economy.
Seriki explained that in those countries, the local people specialises in the different components of the computer hardware without relying on foreign products, thereby creating more job opportunities, increase in revenue and the standard of living.
Professor Chris Uwaje, president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (Ispon), stated that much has to be done in developing skills for the country’s ICT sector, and that it should start from institutions of learning where the foundation has to be laid. Uwaje stated that the country has been a consumer of foreign products and would be a digital colony of the Western world if the trend is not rectified by building IT professionals to grow the sector, both in the area of hardware and software development.