The Federal Government through the 3 Million Technical Talents (3MTT) program, has announced job opportunities for the 30,000 fellows that have graduated from cohort 1 of the program.

The program coordinators announced this on Thursday, asking the fellows to start applying. While the nature of the jobs was not disclosed, the coordinators said the fellows would see the jobs that are available locally and remotely once they log in to their dashboards.

“We are happy to announce that you can now explore job opportunities on the 3MTT Job Boards! These Job Boards are accessible to Fellows who have completed both online courses and ALC training. Sign up today and apply for roles both locally and remotely,” the announcement read.

Jobs promised

While announcing the commencement of the second phase of the program in March, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, said that the government was working to provide jobs for the cohort 1 fellows including placing them as interns with partnering companies.

• “As we continue to interact, we are working with partners to ensure that those of them who want to go the route of entrepreneurship can be supported to kick off their small businesses to start their technology startups and hopefully help create the solutions to many of the problems that we face in the country that technology can help address,” the Minister added.

In addition, the Minister the government was also working on the possibility of providing unemployment benefits for Nigerians participating in the program.

Tijani said the idea of the unemployment benefits for participants was at the behest of President Bola Tinubu, who is deeply committed to the program. According to him, the 3MTT program is based on the President’s promise of creating 2 million digital jobs.

Building tech workforce

While noting that the country is now building the emerging talent for the workforce that the world requires to be able to power the application of technology, the Minister said:

• “The President has been very clear; he has asked that we also look at the possibility of providing unemployment benefits to those who qualify within this program.
• “As we continue to build out these opportunities, our goal is to support our people to ensure that we can give them the skill set that they require to participate in the global digital economy.
• “We understand that as we empower them, we will end up strengthening our ability to defend our GDP as a country to defend the complexity of our economy as well as ensure that we continue to drive the growth that we want to see in our beloved country.”

What you should know

According to Tijani, the 3MTT program is a critical part of the Renewed Hope agenda, and is aimed at building Nigeria’s technical talent backbone to power its digital economy and position Nigeria as a net talent exporter.

• The program started with 30,000 Nigerians, representing 1% of the 3 million target, while the 270,000 selected for the second cohort brought the number to 10%.
• To achieve the program’s target, Tijani said the different phases will be executed based on the framework co-created with key stakeholders across government agencies, training providers, educational institutions, development agencies, and the private sector.
• Some of the skills Nigerians are being trained on include skills that utilize technology to enhance various roles without directly involving tech creation.
• These include Digital Marketing, Project Management Software, Cloud Platforms Navigation, Data Analysis and Visualisation, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), CRM Management, Accounting Software, Graphics Design, and UX/UI Design, among several others.