Senior Special Assistant to the President on Students’ Engagement, Comrade Sunday Asefon, has hailed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for elevating the face of digital education and resetting the academic structures to create economic opportunities for students and graduates, and to make them competitive on the global scene.

Asefon spoke on Wednesday at a Renewed Hope Students’ Leaders’ Engagement and Digital Acceleration Programme for Southwest Zone, held at the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, with the theme “Empowering students with Digital Skills and Innovation”

No fewer than 50 students received free laptops to boost their ICT expertise, skills, and innovations at the event, where Asefon was garlanded with Awards of Excellence by different student bodies.

Addressing participants drawn across tertiary institutions domiciled in the southwest region, Asefon described President Tinubu as possessing the most impactful policies among elected Presidents in the areas of education and youth development, since the advent of democracy in 1999.

Highlighting the benefits of the digital innovation policy, Asefon said the initiative forms the kernel of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Initiative to bolster Nigerians’ access to functional education, employment, innovation, and a better future.

Underscoring the significance of digital education, the presidential aide said the world is now on the verge where technological innovation has assumed the engine room of the economy, saying the programme was conceptualised to make the students profoundly savvy in deployment of technology to unlock their potential for economic prosperity.

Asefon, who pledged that the programme had benefited the South-South, Southeast, and Northeast students, assured the people that it would cover all the zones of the country in the spirit of inclusivity that has become the cornerstone of Tinubu’s administration.

He said that whether you are in Medicine and Surgery, Engineering, Nursing, Education and Social Sciences, digital education can still help you create better opportunities, and that is why the President Tinubu- led administration doesn’t joke with this initiative.

“As students and future leaders, develop interest in ICT, Artificial Intelligence, get the right skills and recognise opportunities to change your lives. The Renewed Hope agenda is about helping Nigerians realise their dreams and achieve them to build a better future. Believe in yourself, the future of this country belongs to us.”

The Presidential aide stated that the National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), codenamed Students’ Loan, had benefited about 1.6 million students, bringing a decline in school dropouts on account of financial incapability.

“Once you are qualified and you are a Nigerian, you don’t need to know any politician before benefiting from NELFUND. Even the scholarship being offered by the Petroleum Trust Development Fund has no political or ethnic colouration. You benefit once you have the qualifications to study at the undergraduate, Master’s, and PHD levels.

“Students who previously struggled to pay tuition fees and other approved institutional charges now have access to government loans with zero interest, while eligible students also receive upkeep every month.

“The administration is also strengthening Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) because education is not only about certificates,” he said.

On how committed President Tinubu was to the growth of Science and Technology, Executive Secretary, Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF), Prof Shaibu Shehu, said over N232 billion had been disbursed as loans to students to advance their education up to PHD level.

Prof Shaibu, represented by the PTDF’s Deputy Manager (Scholarship), Mr. Salman Olowo, disclosed that President Tinubu was desperate to produce graduate engineers and technologists who can innovate and build, rather than just acquire certificates.

A guest lecturer and Head of Department, Computer Science at EKSU, Dr. Oluwatoyin Yerokun, appealed to beneficiaries against delving into the negative side of ICT, pointing out that software applications in mechatronics, data science, auto mechanics, architecture, design, arts, and science are considered money-spinning and lucrative ventures.

Eulogising the ICT-compliant policy, the President, National Association of Universities’ Students NAUS), Com Mitchell Anthony, averred that digital education is important to bolster the employability of graduates, saying certificates alone are not sufficient to create opportunities in this modern time.

Anthony stated that the country’s students and youths constitute over 70% of the voting demography, as contained in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s register, stating that this will be deployed to keep Tinubu in the presidential seat till 2031. (Nigerian Tribune)