More Funds required to bridge Digital Literacy -DBI President

By Etuka Sunday

The President/CEO, Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Prof. Mohammed Ajiya yesterday called on cooperate bodies for sponsorship to assist the institute bridge the digital literacy gap in the country.
Prof. Ajiya made the appeal in Abuja while receiving members of the Nigerian Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) Abuja chapter, in his office.
He said the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been doing a lot but for the institute to train Nigerians across all levels the institute needs funding from other sources.
Speaking on the importance of training more Nigerians on digital technology, Prof. Ajiya said the institute needs funding assistance.
“We are looking for those who can afford training funding so that we can do more,” he said.
The DBI boss said, “We are trying to bridge the digital technology gap; our duty is training Nigerians on the use of modern technology and since inception in 2004, we have trained over 60000 Nigerians”
He said the institute is currently in partnership with many foreign ICT companies such as Microsoft and the International Telecommunication Union.
He said the institute intends to runderstand both masters programmes and Post Graduate programmes but since the institute is not an academic degree awarding they will have to be afliated to universities will award certificate and the end of the programme.
“We are looking at the possibility of running Master and Post Graduate programme with universities that are strong in these area (Telecommunication and ICT).”
According to Prof. Ajiya the NCC has built additional three campuses to the present three that the institute is having: Abuja, Lagos (Southwest) and Kano (Northwest)
Asaba (South South), Enugu (Southeast) and Yola (Northeast). As it stands today the institute now have a campus in every geopolitical zone in the country.
In his explanation, DBI offer courses in specialised areas such as Telecommunications Technology, Multimedia Technology, Computer Software Engineering and Computer Hardware Engineering and that at the end of the course a graduant goes home with two certificates: one international certification by Microsoft and the other one in the specific area of specialisation.
In conclusion he said, the institute is speaking to state governments in the country on the importance of e-governance and that some have invited them to come and discuss.