The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has raised the need to design policies that intentionally include about 35 million persons with special needs in digital literacy, technology empowerment programmes.
The Director-General, NITDA, Malam Kashifu Inuwa, said this on Thursday in Abuja when he received a delegation from the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), a disability advocacy group.
The delegation was led by the group’s Executive Director, Ms. Grace Jerry.
Inuwa said that including special needs persons in their programmes would align with President Bola Tinubu’s priority areas of reforming the nation’s economy and inclusive growth.
“This has brought to my attention the need to be more intentional in the way we design our programmes because there is no way we can achieve 95 per cent digital inclusion if we exclude 35 million Nigerians.
“The agency has always been conducting targeted training for people with special needs in various parts of the country in the past.
“We will ensure that we expand our initiatives to all parts of country and our office facility have that in consideration but our programmes going forward will reflect this inclusion,” he said.
The D-G proposed the inclusion of representatives from the disability community in national ICT committees responsible for developing standards, training curricula and policy frameworks.
According to him, their presence would ensure proper representation and help drive implementation beyond bureaucratic limitations.
He also suggested the integration of disability-focused initiatives into national programmes such as the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) tech initiatives, women’s training cohorts and major technology activities.
These platforms, he said, provided valuable opportunities for networking, skills development and enterprise support.
“For us, it’s beyond just training. The real goal is empowerment, how we can train people to use IT to expand their businesses and improve their lives,” Inuwa said.
He reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to strategic collaboration and invited disability-focused organisations to partner with NITDA in shaping an inclusive digital economy.
Earlier, Jerry expressed appreciation to the agency for the engagement and highlighted the digital gap within the disability community.
She said the government’s goal of achieving 95 per cent digital literacy by 2030 would only be realistic if it was truly inclusive.
“Digital literacy is fast becoming a foundational skill for employment, and without deliberate inclusion, millions will be left behind,” Jerry said.
The meeting buttressed NITDA’s increasing focus on inclusive policy design in line with national economic reform priorities.
NAN
