More than 72,000 Nigerians applied for the Federal Government’s new Digital Training Academy, but only 16,000 have been selected for its inaugural cohort, highlighting the level of demand for government-backed digital skills training.
The Federal Ministry of Education said 72,850 applications were received from Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Of those applicants, 19,699 met the programme’s entry requirements, while 16,000 were eventually selected.
The figures were disclosed on Tuesday, September 15, as the government formally launched the Digital Training Academy (DTA), a six-month intervention designed to give Nigerians access to digital skills, professional certifications and pathways into employment and entrepreneurship.
16,000 Nigerians will start the first training cycle
The inaugural cohort will receive training in areas including software development, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing and IT automation.
The official DTA platform describes the programme as a government-backed initiative offering free digital and professional training. It lists skills including AI and machine learning, cybersecurity, cloud computing, IT automation, fintech, agentic AI, natural language processing and quantum computing.
The programme also covers natural language processing and quantum computing, reflecting the government’s focus on both established technology skills and emerging areas of the digital economy.
Participants will have access to global learning platforms including Coursera and Pluralsight, while certification opportunities will include programmes from Google, IBM and Huawei.
The government plans to support learners with computers, internet connectivity, access centres, facilitators and mentors through partnerships with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH).
The programme is being implemented under the Nigeria Education Digital Infrastructure (NEDI) programme, which falls within the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI).
Fixing the digital skills gap goes beyond training
The scale of applications for the DTA reflects a wider challenge facing Nigeria and the rest of Africa, where demand for digitally skilled workers is growing faster than the available talent pool.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank estimate that about 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030, creating a significant need to expand digital capabilities across the region.
Nigeria faces a similar challenge. The country’s labour force is expected to require about 28 million digitally skilled workers by 2030, while graduate unemployment has also risen sharply over the decades. A study found that unemployment among Nigerians with bachelor’s degrees was less than 1% in 1974 but had risen to 28.8% by the fourth quarter of 2020.
This means the challenge is not simply getting more Nigerians to obtain certificates, but building pathways that connect digital skills to employment, entrepreneurship and opportunities in the technology economy.
That gap is also being addressed outside government programmes. In early August, Students in Tech, a nationwide community platform established by TechMedia Africa, officially launched to connect Nigerian students with careers, funding, mentorship and opportunities across the technology ecosystem.
The platform is designed as an ongoing community for students in universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education, with the broader goal of narrowing the gap between campus talent and industry opportunities.
For Nigeria’s digital skills push to translate into economic opportunities, initiatives such as the Digital Training Academy will need to go beyond the number of people trained and certified. The more important measure will be how effectively those skills translate into jobs, businesses and a workforce capable of meeting the digital demands expected across Nigeria and Africa by 2030.