TheNewsGuru

Tag: Capacity building

  • Why capacity building in digital skills is important for professionals in Africa

    Why capacity building in digital skills is important for professionals in Africa

    By Emmanuel Otori

    Capacity building is the improvement in an individual’s or organization’s facility to produce, perform or deploy. According to the United Nation, Capacity building is the process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities processes and resources that organization and communities need to survive, adapt and thrive in a fast-changing world.

    Skill development and training are needed around the world, many people are deprived of capacities and skills crucial to digital era. Digital capacity building must be more needs-driven and tailored to individual and national circumstances and better coordinated globally.

    According to the 2017 Global Innovation Index, several African Countries have been classified as’ ’Innovation Achievers’’ in the Continent including Kenya, Uganda and Senegal. Yet, many African Nations are not able to fully benefit from global advancement in technology.

    However, in today’s world, technology plays an increasingly important role in the economy and society as a whole. Digital skills can help you increase your employability prospects, advance your career and make the most of modern technology. UNESCO defines digital skills as the ability to use digital devices, community applications and networks to access and manage information. Digital skills may give you an advantage in specific technical careers such as marketing, design, development and data science.

    Capacity building in digital skills is strengthening digital capacities and skills to meet the demands of digital world skill development and training. So, capacity building in digital skills is to adopt and develop new practices with digital technology in order to be able to analyze and develop a critical perspective on content and underlying systems, services and network.

    Acquiring digital skills is very important as the world is a fast-evolving digital world. Current technologies are being replaced by more advanced ones increasingly rapidly, so having a strong digital skillset, feeling confident in your own capabilities to navigate through a constantly changing digital environment, will be very important for future employment.

    I strongly believe that building or owning a digital skill set will contribute or help to:

    • To adapt the right digital devices, applications, software and systems.
    • Find, review, organize and share information effectively
    • Handle data appropriately and establish good data security practices.
    • Be able to communicate and collaborate in digital setting.
    • Use different online resources and tools to help study remotely and engage effectively with your learning
    • Understand how to protect yourself, other colleagues, to stay safe in digital environment.

    Conclusively, digital capabilities as the skills knowledge and understanding which help someone to live, learn and work in a digital society, help us to use variety of technologies, appropriately and effectively in different spaces, places and situations.

    Not only do digital capabilities help to engage and communicate with other people in your personal life or whilst you to learn, they help you to succeed in the world of work. Employers are increasingly looking at what digital capabilities applicants and employees have.

    Skills in creating documents, presentations, spreadsheet and communicating via email and social media are areas which are important to most organizations.

    They want people to use technology to access information, be creative, innovative, solve problems, communicate, participate, learn and support others in digital spaces. Building and developing digital capabilities will definitely help to become better prepared and relevant for increasingly digital world.

     

    Emmanuel Otori has over 9 years of experience working with 100 start-ups and SMEs across Nigeria. He has worked on the Growth and Employment (GEM) Project of the World Bank, GiZ, Consulted for businesses at the Abuja Enterprise Agency, Novustack, Splitspot and NITDA. He is the Chief Executive Officer at Abuja Data School.

  • NCC, LBS mull collaboration on capacity building

    NCC, LBS mull collaboration on capacity building

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Lagos Business School of Pan-Atlantic University are considering forging a partnership that will result in developing customised capacity building interventions and overhauling of existing training courses offered by the LBS to address critical areas of needs of the Commission’s human capital development.

    The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, emphasized the imperative of such collaboration during a visit of an LBS delegation led by the School’s Director, Executive Education, Victor Banji, to the Commission’s Head Office in Abuja recently.

    The EVC spoke through NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, who received the LBS delegation (alongside other senior management staff of the Commission) on behalf of the EVC.

    Addressing the visiting team, Adewolu said NCC constantly engages in staff training as part its strategy to build managerial and technical skills required to manage the ever-dynamic telecoms regulatory environment in Nigeria.

    Adewolu said while LBS, has been a training partner of NCC over the years and currently provides some classes of capacity building to staff of the Commission, it has become necessary to expand the training scope by ensuring that other customized programmes that target specific needs of Commission’s human capital are designed by the School in collaboration with NCC team to meet strategic objectives and enhance the relationship of the two organisations.

    Among the areas of interest to the Commission are courses on performance appraisal management, policy formulation and execution, risk management, technical report writing, telecoms-related training, tariff and competition management, as well as basic training on policy formulation and implementation, social media training, audio-visual editing, among others.

    “I thank the LBS for its collaboration with NCC over the years in the area of human capital development. However, we expect that LBS will work with NCC to see how we can collectively overhaul the existing courses and bring new course to NCC’s attention which we would, in turn, subject to our training need analysis (TNA). This may result in a review of ur existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) towards making our relationship much stronger and more mutually beneficial,” Adewolu said.

    The Executive Commissioner also explained that though NCC is a regulatory agency, it has seen the need for indigenous digital skills development in Nigeria, and that explained the creation creation of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), by the Commission to meet the human capital needs of the burgeoning telecom, and broadly, the ICT sector.

    According to Adewolu, other areas of focus in meeting educational needs of the sector, include indigenous digital skills development, sponsoring of hackathon, provision of research grants to the academia, endowment of professorial chairs in universities, and the acceleration of digital infrastructure deployment across the country to boost digital literacy and skills for Nigeria’s socio-economic development.

    Speaking earlier on the purpose of the visit to the Commission, Banji of LBS, said the business school wishes to serve as a strategic capacity development partner to NCC for its teaming staff; revisit LBS’s existing MoU for necessary enhancements; as well as offer corporate governance, board leadership and management development programmes to enhance corporate effectiveness.

    Banji also commended the NCC for its role in ensuring effective digital transformation in Nigeria. “As the Commission responsible for creating an enabling environment for telecom operators and allied stakeholders in the industry, as well as ensuring the provision of qualitative and efficient telecommunications services throughout the country, NCC has earned a reputation as a foremost Telecom regulatory agency in Africa,” Banji said.

    In addition, the LBS Executive stated that while his organisation will continue to play a prominent and leading role in building leaders with integrity for Nigeria, Africa, and the world, it also believes that with effective directors and leaders in the public sector organisation such as the NCC, Nigeria will be managed more efficiently for greater value and sustainable growth.

    “Our conviction at LBS is that telecommunications penetration is one of the critical developments required to transform poverty into prosperity. Our thesis is simple:  the access to and use of mobile telephony contributes to the health of the population and efficiency of the economy. It is equally a lever for poverty reduction as contained in Goal One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Banji declared to emphasize the centrality of telecoms as an enabler of development.

  • Fidelity Bank hosts capacity building for SMEs

    Fidelity Bank hosts capacity building for SMEs

    Fidelity Bank Plc is set to organise a national capacity building webinar for small medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

    The programme is part of deliberate efforts to assist entrepreneurs across all sectors of the Nigerian economy develop requisite capacity to unlock their full potentials and take their businesses to the next level of growth.

    Targeted specifically at existing businesses operating in critical sectors of the economy including trade and commerce, manufacturing, hospitality, education, entertainment, transportation and agriculture, these virtual sessions will take place across the country on a state-by-state basis, with the maiden edition slated for Enugu State on January 27, 2021.

    The Enugu event is organised in collaboration with the Enugu State Ministry of Trade and Commerce and the Enugu SME Centre; Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); Nigeria Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (NASME) and Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA).

    Themed “Funding and Financial Management”, the Enugu Edition will have in attendance special guests including Mrs. Monica Ugwuanyi, First Lady, Enugu State, Sir Robert Anwatu, Managing Director, Roban Stores, and Mr. Chiedozie Atuegwu, Director, Michelle Laboratories Limited.

    Speaking on the event, Fidelity CEO, Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe said the programme underscores the bank’s long-running support for the growth of small businesses which stems from its recognition of MSMEs as critical agents of economic development and transformation in Nigeria and the world at large.

    According to Onyeali-Ikpe, the session aims at providing practical information, skills, and resources to help entrepreneurs become better managers of their businesses. The bank has embarked on virtual SME-based events to adhere to the social distancing guideline essential to promoting the safety of every participant in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.