The Federal Government has selected 19,723 Nigerians for the first cohort of its Digital Training Academy (DTA) after receiving 72,850 applications from across the country.
The National Coordinator of the Special Program Operations and Implementation Unit (SPOI) at the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Adebayo Onigbanjo, disclosed this at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
Onigbanjo spoke ahead of the national launch of the DTA, scheduled for Sept. 14, 2026.
The Digital Training Academy is a free, government-backed digital skills program established under the Nigerian Education Digital Initiative (NEDI).
Onigbanjo described the academy as a major intervention under the Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI), designed to equip young Nigerians with globally recognized and in-demand digital skills at no cost.
He said the initiative was also part of the Federal Government’s response to President Bola Tinubu’s directive to develop a generation of Nigerians with internationally certified skills to compete in the global digital economy.
Applications for the first cohort opened on Aug. 17 and closed on Sept. 1, attracting 72,850 registrations from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Following the screening exercise, 19,723 applicants met the qualifying benchmark and were admitted into the program.
Onigbanjo said beneficiaries of the government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program had also been integrated into the first cohort.
He added that learners nominated through partner institutions, including Yaba College of Technology and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), were also enrolled.
According to him, the integration of existing digital skills programs would enable the academy to build on investments already made by the government in digital capacity development.
The training will be delivered through two international learning platforms, Coursera and Pluralsight.
Onigbanjo said Coursera would offer courses across six areas: Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Financial Technology, Product Management, Natural Language Processing and Quantum Computing.
Pluralsight, he added, would provide training in Agentic AI, Proactive Security, IT Automation and Cloud Computing.
He said participants in the first cohort would work toward certifications recognized in Nigeria and internationally by employers and institutions.
Onigbanjo urged successful applicants to log into their accounts and accept their license offers so they could begin their training.
He said the DTA represented a key component of NESRI’s Data and Digitalization initiative and supported the Renewed Hope Agenda’s focus on human capital development.
The national coordinator said the first cohort marked the beginning of the academy’s nationwide expansion, adding that details on subsequent cohorts would be announced during the national launch.
