Mary Nnah
The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) through its COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) programme is set to train 5000 women in Digital Literacy across five Local Government Areas in Lagos.
The training which is aimed at increasing revenue and improving business resilience to spur economic growth and digital economy will strengthen the bustling entrepreneurial communities in Lagos State.
According to the Executive Secretary, LSETF, Mrs Tejumola Abisoye, “CARES programme intends to empower 500 women with digital literacy training and Smart POS Phones at the pilot phase.”
The first phase will be implemented in five Local Government Areas (LGAs) starting with Alimosho LGA and its LCDAs where 100 women have been selected as beneficiaries.
She further added that the programme will make a significant contribution to Lagos State mandate of increasing employment opportunities in Lagos.
The digital literacy training in partnership with Bookings Africa, MTN Nigeria, Access Bank and University of Lagos Entrepreneurial Skills Development Centre will address issues of unemployment amongst women, lack of accessibility to finance, smart phones, data and digital literacy.
Women between ages 18 and 50 living below the poverty line, without smartphones and in the micro enterprise space are beneficiaries that will undergo the digital literacy programme.
MTN Nigeria will provide data at subsidised rates for the beneficiaries while Access Bank will be the gateway for payment platform and University of Lagos will assist with white paper for research.
An impact assessment will be carried out to assess the impact of this initiative and ascertain whether there has been an increase in revenue since the beneficiaries became part of the programme.
The Chief Executive Officer, Bookings Africa, Fade Ogunro, noted that the programme curriculum will cover basic use of android smartphones, google, WhatsApp & Facebook, the Bookings Africa App and agency banking App, adding that, the beneficiaries will be taught by nine master trainers (Liaison Officers) who have been trained across the different LGAs. #
Ugweke Cynthia Amaka, a beneficiary of the initiative could not contain her joy as she explained that the digital literacy programme will her become self-employed, digitally literate; give her the opportunity to support her family financially and also to become independent.
The digital literacy training and the Smart POS Phone programme is an initiative to introduce the grassroots to the digital economy.
Originally, this programme was under the IT Enhancement Grant under Lagos CARES programme. The programme is to reduce the vulnerability and cushion the effect of income-loss brought about by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant disruption to regular commercial activity.
The Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) Programme dubbed as Lagos –CARES, is a state-level intervention that seeks to mitigate and cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the residents of Lagos. The programme is financed by the World Bank.
