By Emmanuel Elebeke, Abuja

The Director General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, says the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) idea Hatch (Ihatch) initiative has raised about $274,000 and created 179 direct jobs from its 1st iHatch Cohort held last year.

The DG disclosed this at the second Cohort Demo Day and the opening ceremony for the third Cohort of NITDA’s iHatch initiative in Abuja.

While providing insights into the success achieved and the ambitious plans for the future, Abdullahi, emphasized NITDA’s strategic pillars, highlighting digital literacy, a robust research ecosystem, policy implementation, inclusive access to digital infrastructure, and strategic partnerships initiative of the agency as steps to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to propelling Nigeria forward in the realms of digital transformation, innovation, and economic growth.

According to him, the agency’s efforts culminated in the iHatch initiative, training 16 startups across two cohorts and creating a platform for innovation and entrepreneurship.

“I believe we can create more jobs. If with one location only Abuja, in less than 16 month we have created 179 direct jobs. By the time we expand it to 36 locations plus Abuja making it 37, that means we create thousands of jobs” adding that the initiative has expanded to Port Harcourt, Lagos, Kano and Gombe.”

Continuing, the NITDA boss said,
“Our partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been instrumental. Plans for an innovation hub and potential talent exchange with Japan are steps towards further global integration”, just as he further disclosed that JICA had plans to build an innovative hub soon.

He challenged the participants to build a platform for them to continue mentoring others and for each cohort, so that they can have a record NITDA can keep in touch.

“And this can be a platform that can provide skills, solutions to problems and other things. So NITDA will fund anybody with idea on how to build that platform” the director general said.

He also urged youths with ideas to come to the organization with their ideas and get the necessary training and funding they need to move the digital transformation.

The winners of the second cohort were awarded $15000; $12,000 and $10,000 each, respectively as encouragement for their innovation and hard work.

The three winners are: Fundus; Reno and Ilim Tutors who expressed their gratitude to NITDA and assured that they would channel the money into the expansion of their business.