The five-day training organized by NITDA which comprised of people with different degrees of disability is one of the numerous human capacity development programmes the agency is embarking upon to reduce the ICT knowledge gap.
At the end of the training, each trainee went home with a Zinox laptop.
Speaking on the training, the Director General of NITDA, Mr. Peter Olu Jack, while declaring the training open said the training was designed to mainstream the people with disability into the NITDA's plan to bridge the digital divided in the country.
Jack, who expressed satisfaction with the success and enthusiasm of the beneficiaries at the training said: "Henceforth the training for the physically challenged in our society would now be an annual programme on the NITDA platform."
He decried what he called lack of social protection for the persons living with disability, and vowed to lift them from their present state of neglect to the level of ICT skill acquisition status in line with the President Goodluck Jonathan's agenda.
The NITDA boss explained that the objective of the programme was not only to train the vulnerable ones among in the society but empower them to earn a living for themselves through the application of ICT. "We are not only going to train you without empowering you. We have concluded arrangement to give you one laptop which you can use to take care of yourselves. ICT is one of the sectors of the economy that with one laptop each, you can be employers of labour."
He charged them to be part of the pioneers of the proposed 200, 000 NITDA telecentre, aimed at becoming a one stop shop, where ICT businesses, corner shops and other business opportunities would be available.
Earlier in his remark, the facilitator of the training and President of Global Hope and Justice for the Less Privilege Incorporation, Mr. Paul Ihekwoaba, described the programme as a huge success and a dream come true, saying that the scheme was aimed at reducing poverty and hardship facing Nigerians with disability using ICT. He said the training would not only enhance the living standard of the trainees but go a long way in addressing some of the issues surrounding youths with disabilities, especially in the area of ICT which is pivotal and in tandem with the current global trend in ensuring an all inclusive human development.
"We felt that this training would be a potent tool to address the unemployment facing youth with disabilities and also to challenge them to discover the hidden talents in them so as to be self reliant and less dependent. At the end of the programme 'your human capacity must have been enriched and empowered, you can be economically independent at least to a reasonable extent," he said
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