Technology firm, Cisco, says it will train one million students in Nigeria and Africa on digital skills, through its Networking Academy (NetAcad) by year 2025.

Olakunle Oloruntimehin, Cisco General Manager for Nigeria and West Africa, said in a statement on Monday in Lagos that close to 700,000 students had participated in the company’s NetAcad courses since its launch in 1998.

“This year, the company has set an ambitious goal to train an additional one million students in Africa, including Nigeria by 2025″.

”The students will be trained during the next three years, followed by re-skilling initiatives for active workforce and job seekers, based on content from Cisco NetAcad”.

”Through NetAcad, Cisco intends to support the creation of Digital Learning Hubs in public libraries, accessible by the local population.

”Cisco also plans to actively engage with employers to identify job opportunities that align to the skills of NetAcad students and alumni,” he said.

Oloruntimehin said that the technology company would continue to help society securely connect and seize tomorrow’s digital opportunity today.

He said that in November 2018, Cisco opened the first Cisco EDGE Incubation Center in Pretoria, South Africa.

EDGE stands for Experience, Design, GTM (Go to Market) and Earn.

According to him, in the coming months, Cisco plans to establish a similar centre in Nigeria.

”The objective is to share business knowledge, help develop small and medium businesses in the digital age, speed up their entry to market and, as a result, create new jobs for the local economy”.

”EDGE centres function as incubators, as they provide small and medium businesses with state-of-the-art Cisco communication and collaboration technology, alongside training and enablement programmes”.

”They specialise in topics that are relevant to the local economy, such as smart ports, IoT in agriculture and smart cities”.

”In addition, small and medium businesses are able to connect with global Cisco experts, who can support them with developing business ideas and concepts,” he said.

Oloruntimehin said that for more than 20 years, Cisco had invested in educating and upskilling students, graduates and unemployed youth through its NetAcad.

He said that NetAcad provided students hands-on digital skills to prepare them for careers in the digital economy.(NAN)