NCS to Create 1m Jobs through Call Centres, BPOs in 5 years
With youths unemployment surging by the day across the nation at geometric progression, the Nigerian Computer Society, (NCS) at the weekend disclosed that plans were underway for the creation of over one million jobs through call center development, Business Processing Outsourcing, (BPO) among others.
The president of NCS, Sir Demola Aladekomo while explaining how this can be achieved when he led the leadership of the group to the office of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) in Lagos recently said that there was urgent need to create more jobs through ICT so as to reduce youths unemployment thereby fighting terrorism to the barest mininum
Aladekomo said it has become imperative tackle the rise in youth unemployment in the country, adding that the ugly trend has resulted to social vices which are affecting economic growth.
With NCS partnership with other interest groups including the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria; Information and Technology Association of Nigeria and Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria, he was very optimistic that Nigerian youths stand to get gain a lot through capacity building in ICT.
Incubation centres will create jobs:
”We are working with the ministry of Communication Technology for job creation. We have major initiative to create over one million jobs in the next five years. We are hoping to use Call centres, BPO and E-payment initiatives and technologies in relationship with governments towards generating these jobs. We can achieve this through concerted efforts by the stakeholders. We will not relent in our advocacy role. Nigeria cannot continue to be a consuming nation. This is the time to stop it.”, he explained.
He added that NCS has been in the forefront in the establishment of incubation centres across the nation where young Nigerian can be gainfully employed.
These are centres where young and up-coming ICT professionals can go in order to sharpen their skills, he said.
Local content:
Aladekomo, who is passionate about creativity among the youths noted that NCS was determined to promote local content development, research and development among others through advocacy, capacity building. This he added will create millions of jobs for the Nigerian youths
NCS is the umbrella body of all IT professionals and organizations in Nigeria. We have more than 17,000 members with three major interest groups (ISPON, ITAN and ISPAN).
Our areas of focus and intervention areas are:
Employment Creation:
In view of the current events in the country, he disclosed that the group has major initiative to create One Million jobs in the next five years.
We are hoping to use Call centre, BPO and E-payment initiatives and technologies in relationship with Governments towards generating these jobs, .” he explained
IT in security:
According to him, NCS was fully engaging the Governments in using IT to fight the current issues in the country, adding that already, NCS was currently engaging the government in Cybercrime laws, legislations, among others.
Engages government agencies:
As part of public private partnership, he added that NCS will engage in strategic partnership with government agencies, to set up standards in software, hardware and system integration issues with a view to creating an enabling environment for a win-win situation.
This, according to Demola would ensure high standards of products and services, job creation and user satisfaction. We are fully involved with the Ministry of Communication Technology in formulating a new National ICT Policy.
Cashless society:
Speaking on cashless society, Aladekomo said the cashless economy would bring about operational efficiency, reduce crime and corruption, adding that the public should be enlightened about the advantage through awareness and sensitisation workshops.
Earlier in his response, the Managing Director of NIBSS, Mr. Adebisi Shonubi while commending the employment generation initiative of the NCS noted that security in technology was a serious concern of NIBSS.
He called on the NCS to find ways of addressing the problem of unscrupulous individuals providing IT services who may not be members of NCS, adding that security should be taking very seriously in the cashless and IT driven society.
He commended NCS partnership with government agencies and is ready to work with NCS on its initiatives to address the developmental concerns.
Source: Vanguard Nigeria
