By Emmanuel Elebeke

As part of initiatives to fulfil it mandate, the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA says over 100,000 jobs will be created in the country annually through Information Technology, IT outsourcing sector.  The Director General of the agency,  Dr. Ashiru Daura, made this  known during the second National Outsourcing Conference held in Abuja.

Dr. Daura said, though the sector is in its infant stage, it  has the capacity to create over 100,000 jobs in the economy, given the  efforts of the agency in making Nigeria a leading  IT hub in Africa.

When achieved, he stated that thousands of Nigerian unemployed youths would be gainfully engaged in different IT outsourcing jobs within and outside the country.

“NITDA is aware of the priority place job creation is given in  Mr. President’s Transformation Agenda. It is our resolve to support the  President on this agenda by creating an enabling environment for providing job opportunities for our teeming youths through the use of IT enabled services. We have no doubt that IT outsourcing will go a long way in complementing the federal government’s effort to tackle the challenge of unemployment in the country,” he said.

Also speaking, the chairman of Nigerian Association of Information Technology Enabled Outsourcing Companies, NAITEOC,  David Onu, boasted that outsourcing industry in Nigeria is capable of generating N1.3trillion annually if it is well developed and would be able create over five million jobs in the next ten years.

He stated that over 10,000 unemployed Nigerians have so far been engaged in the sector.

The NAITEOC Chairman, while calling for more support of the sector by both government and the private sector, said the sector, if given the priority attention is capable of boosting the country’s gross domestic product.