Nigeria: African Development Bank partners with government and Microsoft to launch Digital Nigeria eLearning Platform

 AfDB NEW & EVENTS

01-Oct-2020

The African Development Bank, the government of Nigeria and Microsoft(link is external) on Monday launched the Digital Nigeria eLearning Platform(link is external), to provide marketable digital skills to the country’s youth.

The platform offers courses in web development, content creation, and data science, among others. The platform also uses gamification techniques to teach problem solving, collaboration, creative thinking and basic coding. The platform will be continually updated with new courses and leverage partnerships to provide training certifications. Within 24 hours of launch the platform recorded over 16,000 user registrations. Nearly 6000 of registrants had completed at least one training course and earned a  certificate

Content will be accessible via a web site and a mobile app.

The platform will leverage the African Development Bank’s Coding for Employment initiative and build linkages between the public and private sectors to create 9 million jobs in Africa’s digital economy in the next ten years.

“We are championing a paradigm shift that lays emphasis on skills…This is a growing trend across the globe. The digital literacy and skills pillar recognizes the fact that citizens are the greatest assets in any economy, including the digital economy. It will support the development of a large pool of digitally literate and digitally skilled citizens,” said Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, Nigeria’s Minister of Communication and Digital Economy at the launch.

Ebrima Faal, Senior Director for the Bank’s Nigeria Country Department, said the new normal had accelerated the demand for digital services and fourth industrial revolution technologies across all sectors.

“From artificial intelligence, the internet of things, social media communication, digital learning platforms, augmented and virtual reality, drones, 3D printing and so much more – the world has undergone a massive disruption. The African Development Bank is committed to supporting the Nigerian government to realize a fully integrated digital agenda,” Faal said.

Ghada Khalifa, Middle East & Africa Director for Microsoft Philanthropies, also attended the launch.

“Microsoft Philanthropies is committed to creating inclusive economic opportunities in light of the economic crisis created by COVID-19. We are investing in building the capacity of 5 million African youth by 2025, and excited about our collaboration with the African Development Bank and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy in Nigeria with the launch of the Digital Nigeria platform to provide Nigerians with access to digital skills to meet the demand of the job market,” she said. 

The Digital Nigeria eLearning Platform is a key component of the Digital Nigeria programme, which aims to empower innovators and entrepreneurs with the requisite skills to thrive in the emerging digital economy.

The Digital Nigeria programme aligns with the African Development Bank’s strategic agenda to create 25 million jobs in agriculture, information communication technology (ICT) and other key sectors by 2025, and to equip 50 million African youth with competitive skills.

Finding the words for a world in crisis

 AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

30-Sep-2020

 

In December 2019, we heard vague murmurings about it and began to wonder: “What's going on?”

In January 2020, it started spreading and the situation became increasingly more disturbing!

By March 2020, the whole planet was affected. All of a sudden, we were staring at the stark reality. Our buzz words became: “Covid-19”, “coronavirus”, “social distancing”, “lockdown”, “barrier measures”, “hand sanitizers”, “mandatory face masks”, “confirmed cases”, “deaths”, “cured cases”, “chloroquine”, “azithromycin”, “Artemisia” and so on.

The outbreak soon morphed into a tragedy, a veritable disaster, a hecatomb.

Overnight, our daily lives were thrown into disarray. Indeed, there are no words strong enough to describe all that has happened since March 2020 when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO.

Our individual work spaces at the CCIA, HQ and country offices have now been relocated to Riviera (Abidjan), Sicap (Dakar), Koulouba (Ouagadougou), Poto-Poto (Brazzaville), Bastos (Yaoundé), Remera (Kigali), Itaosy (Antananarivo), Berges du Lac (Tunis), Lang'ata (Nairobi), to name but a few.

Needless to say that we have been riding an emotional roller-coaster. Little wonder then that the theme chosen for this year's International Translation Day is: "Finding the Words for a World in Crisis". 

Yes! Let’s find the words to describe our personal experience within our families, in our countries, and on our continent.

Words are potent, having the power and ability to heal, to liberate and to revitalize us.

I therefore urge each and every one of us to find the appropriate words that would help us to adapt, to reinvent ourselves and to positively transform this world in crisis.

Happy International Translation Day!

LAGOS LAUNCHES MAIDEN SDGs WEEK

 

By Temitope Musowo

The Lagos State Government has launched the first edition of the Sustainable Development Goals Week as part of efforts to inspire citizens’ commitment, advocacy and action towards promoting and accelerating the realisation of the SDGs.

According to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals and Investment, Mrs. Solape Hammond, the endeavour is a symbol of the State’s strong leadership, vision and commitment towards greater development.

Restating the Governor’s spirited resolve to address the development needs of Lagosians, particularly in the face of the ongoing pandemic, Hammond said, “The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has heightened the call for renewed dedication to sustainable development by governments at various levels, which Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has taken as a great priority and infused in the State’s development agenda codenamed T.H.E.M.E.S”.

“While the pandemic has significantly exacerbated some of the problems Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are set to solve, it has also triggered the necessity for more concerted actions in addressing many developmental issues troubling our world”, she asserted.

Hammond disclosed that the event, in commemoration of the United Nations’ Global Goals Week, will run till the end of September 2020 and will mobilise collaborative efforts to connect SDG actors and cross-sector stakeholders with a view to identifying solutions, reviewing progress, amplifying awareness, collaborating and reaffirming the commitment towards accelerating efforts to achieve the 17 SDGs and the 2030 agenda. 

She explained that the State Government is setting lofty precedence in the country, and perhaps in Africa, by effectively mobilising individual action towards the attainment of the SDGs, adding that the present administration would continue to drive, extract and utilise available platforms towards improving the living standards of the people.

In his remark, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on SDGs, Mr. Lekan Fatodu, said the focus is to double up efforts and galvanise more actions towards the attainment of the global goals, saying that “The Sustainable Development Goal Week is a proactive and a ground-breaking initiative to implement joint efforts towards meeting the targets and indicators of the SDGs”. 

While applauding the unalloyed contributions of prominent individuals, Corporate Institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations, the Governor’s aide revealed that the initiative will further bring to fore the need for urgent and a collective effort towards finding sustainable solutions to current and impending challenges facing humanity.

The SDGs week will feature sustainable development-related activities that are intrinsically linked in their purpose to fast-track efforts towards progress in realising the SDGs. Some of the planned activities include the Open Goals Adoption by top State functionaries and prominent Lagos residents, the Neighbourhood Outreach Campaign to enlighten citizens on their roles in achieving the Goals and an SDGs discourse with CSOs and related youth groups.  

The highlight of the week will be the distribution of support items and relief materials donated by corporate organisations and well-meaning Lagosians to vulnerable people in some communities and the disbursement of exercise books to primary schools in rural communities.

African Development Bank’s Second Virtual Business Opportunities Seminar (e-BOS)

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

Event location: 

virtual

What:	Second Virtual Business Opportunities Seminar
Who:	The African Development Bank Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Department
When:	Tuesday, 13 October 8:00 to 14:00 GMT; and Wednesday 14 October 11:00 to 17:00 GMT.
Where:	Virtual (Via Zoom)

 

The Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Department (FIRM) of the African Development Bank will hold its second virtual Business Opportunities Seminar (e-BOS) from 8:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m. GMT on Tuesday, October 13, and  from 11:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14.

The two-day webinar will offer individual and consulting firms, civil contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, and diplomatic commercial attachés from the Bank Group’s regional and non-regional members an opportunity to learn more about how to provide goods and services to the institution or otherwise partner with it. The inaugural e-BOS held 28 April, 2020 drew participation from nearly 300 global partners.  

The webinar will provide an overview of Bank Group policies and operations; procurement rules and procedures; and ongoing and future country activities. The e-BOS will also deliver Business-to-Business meetings with key Bank Group departments.

Interpretation will be provided in both English and French.

DRC: African Development Bank approves an envelope of nearly $ 142 million to support the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

24-Sep-2020

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved, on September 23 in Abidjan, financial support of 100 million Unit of Account (approximately $ 142 million) to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, under the Program d budget support in response to the Covid-19 crisis (PABRC).

This envelope, which includes a loan and an African Development Fund (ADF) grant of $ 43.6 million and $ 60.6 million respectively as well as a grant from the Transition Support Facility (TAF) of $ 37.8 million is important support in a difficult context where the economic performance indicators of the DRC have been disrupted by the pandemic. This support will above all make it possible to mitigate the economic impact of the virus in order to promote the country's recovery.

According to Solomane Koné, acting director general of the Bank for Central Africa, “the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in a relatively peaceful phase of political transition and is facing challenges, including that of reviving economic growth and fighting against poverty. The country needs strong and coordinated support from partners. This support will help strengthen the economic and social resilience of populations in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. "

The envelope, which comes from the Covid-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF) set up by the Bank and endowed with a $ 10 billion fund, is intended to support the DRC in its response against new coronavirus. The provinces of Kinshasa, North Kivu, Kongo Central, Haut Katanga, South Kivu, Ituri and Lualaba which group together most of the cases of contamination, will benefit from a greater deployment of the response system against Covid-19.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has so far recorded 271 victims of the virus, according to the WHO, and this central African country has suffered the economic repercussions of the pandemic which has spared no country on the continent.

As part of this operation, the African Development Bank has joined forces with development partners such as the IMF, the World Bank and the French Development Agency, to take concerted action against the pandemic.

Last June, the Bank mobilized $ 13 million for the six member countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and the DRC. The objective was to provide health kits, screening kits and medical ambulances. It was also planned to train community agents and sensitize the populations.

Africa offers Asian business an abundance of investment opportunities, webinar participants learn

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

23-Sep-2020

The African Development Bank today held a workshop to convey the continent’s immense investment and partnership opportunities to Asian business leaders, particularly as the continent seems poised to return to economic growth in 2021 following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two-hour virtual event, held in English, Korean, and Chinese, offered participants an opportunity to learn more about the Bank and its operations. The webinar comes on the heels of the recently launched African Economic Outlook 2020 -Asia Supplement, which revised growth projections and outlook for Africa for 2020 and 2021.  

“I take this opportunity to strongly encourage Asian private sector entities gathered here today, to partner with the Bank to take advantage of the multiple investment opportunities that exist on the continent,” said Samuel Higenyi Mugoya, the Bank’s Director for Syndication, Co-financing and Client Solutions Department, which co-organized the event, together with the Bank’s Asia External Representation Office.

In introducing the Bank, Takashi Hanajiri, Head of the Asia External Representation Office, provided an overview of the Bank and its history and components before providing a summary of its flagship Africa Investment Forum(link is external) initiative and the opportunities it offers. Referring to the AIF event held in Johannesburg in 2019, he said “So far the largest deal was a LNG project in Mozambique with a total cost of $24.6 billion,” adding, “many Asian institutions, both public and private, are sponsoring the project.” 

Following a discussion of the Bank’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hanajiri concluded on a positive note, noting “Africa’s growth will rebound to 3% in 2021 from -3.4% in 2020.”

Bank staff presented on the Bank’s non-sovereign operations and financial product offerings. Other sessions covered Africa’s immense potential in energy, particularly renewable energy, as well as agriculture, which remains the continent’s most important economic sector.

Director Mugoya praised Asian countries’ ongoing support for the Bank and Africa’s development. “There are four Asian member countries in the Bank, namely China, India, Japan, and Korea, that have been long-standing and strategic partners for almost 40 years. The Asian member countries have consistently contributed to the Bank’s capital requirements and supported the African Development Fund’s successive replenishments.” The African Development Fund is the Bank’s concessional window.

The webinar, which drew around 300 participants, closed with a question and answer session. Queries addressed such issues as the Bank’s representation in India, trade financing offerings and access to financing for women. Participating corporations and institutions included Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, Export-Import Bank of India, JICA, Korea Eximbank, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND).

Africa’s huge and highly diverse continent has the second-largest population in the world and the second-largest land mass after Asia, offering tremendous investment opportunities for the Asian private sector. The Bank views Africa’s private sector as a critical engine of economic growth and development but Asian companies often lack information about the business climate.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa was the second-fastest growing continent outside Asia. Over the past decade, the continent has experienced the longest period of unbroken growth in per capita incomes since the 1960s.

In Niger, the African Development Bank is supporting the creation of a pool of skilled labor for emerging sectors of the economyemail sharing button

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

23-Sep-2020

The Support Project for the Development of Vocational and Technical Education and Training ( PADEFPT ) is being implemented between 2011 and 2020 in Niger. It has made it possible, through increased access to quality vocational and technical education and training, to provide the country with a pool of qualified labor for the revitalization of the economy.

This project is designed to respond to new socio-economic opportunities linked to the exploitation of uranium and oil deposits and the launch of major projects, notably the Kandadji dam, the railway and the dry port. The PADEFPT was financed by the African Development Bank, through a grant of $ 23.8 million and a loan of $ 10.5 million, from the Bank's concessional rate lending window, the African Fund for development, totaling 34.3 million US dollars.

The PADEFPT has thus made it possible to train a quality technical workforce to support emerging industrial sectors and Niger's economic growth. This has contributed in particular to strengthening and boosting the development of targeted industrial sectors such as civil engineering, electronic and electrotechnical engineering, mechanical engineering and petrochemical engineering.

Increased access of girls to education

The project specifically focused on the extension and rehabilitation of 52 vocational and technical education and training establishments (VETT), the construction of 37 others and the acquisition of furniture and computer equipment for their equipment. Latest generation equipment was also acquired for the workshops, laboratories and classrooms of the targeted establishments. The project enabled girls to gain access to TVET (55%) and learners were provided with access encouragement kits and support kits after passing exams.

In addition, 673 teachers in the middle cycle of vocational and technical education, including 116 women, have benefited from training of trainers sessions. The development of skills and the development of curricula according to the Competency-Based Approach (APC), formed the framework for strengthening skills.

In terms of institutional capacity building, 50 executives including 11 women benefited from training in strategic planning to strengthen the capacities of executives of the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Education (MEP / T). The training in results-based management concerned 35 managers, including five women and eight regional directors. Also, 164 managers trained, including eight women and eight regional directors of the MEP / T in seven establishments in the four target regions of the project, received training in the gender approach.

Efficient pedagogical supervision

"PADEFPT's support has made it possible to provide the MEP / T and the Nigerien administration with a pool of executives capable of designing and carrying out activities with a view to continuous improvement of the quality of training", underlined the drafting team of the project completion report, led by Alfred Régis Ouédraogo, social development specialist at the African Development Bank.

The report welcomes in particular the continuation of in-service training for teachers in pedagogy, effective pedagogical supervision, capacities in the development and revision of curricula, the inclusion of the gender dimension in TVET and the creation of training modules. pedagogical training.

"The project has made it possible to strengthen the institutional capacities of the MEP / T, the Higher Council of EFPT and training establishments in workshop and laboratory equipment, to raise the level of practical and pedagogical skills of teaching staff and 'supervision, and also to revise and elaborate the curricula which have been developed and introduced in the training course ”, concludes this document recently published by the African Development Bank.