The scheme called Rural Information Technology Centers (RITC), commenced at the weekend with the commissioning of the first one for the Nasarawa community in Nasarawa State.
The centre is designed to provide seamless access to information over the internet, as well as training in computer use for the people of Nasarawa Local Government and adjourning communities.
Commissioning the centre, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye, stressed that the RITC scheme was designed to bring information technology to the doorstep of Nigerians; provide a community-based platform for youth empowerment through e-learning and capacity building in information technology and community-based trainings in IT-enabled outsourcing.
Others objectives of the scheme, he added, include the provision of community-based platform for e-government, e-commerce, telemedicine and other services available today due to globalisation. He expressed optimism that RITC would arrest rural to urban migration by providing the means for rural dwellers and the semi-urban population to become part of the evolving knowledge society and to participate in an economy driven by information technology.
He explained that each of the centers is equipped with state-of-the art facilities for information technology trainings and is enabled to give citizens good access to a full range of information technology services and applications.
Speaking at the commissioning of the project, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Alhassan Bako Zaku described the programme as composite, one-stop-shop facility for information technology at the grassroots.In his remarks at the occasion, the Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Chief MIcahel Jon Abdul, thanked the federal government for citing the first in the series of the RITCs in the state.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Dayo Thomas
Quelle/Source: The Day, 16.02.2009
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