May 27th is a day set aside in Nigeria as Children's Day. It is the day children are celebrated and are recognized as an essential part of any society. The day is observed as a public holiday in primary and secondary schools across the country.

At Tech4Dev, we are particularly excited about days like this because we believe children are the bedrock of any society. According to UNICEF, there are 1.3 billion adolescents (between the ages of 10 and 19) today, more than ever before, making up 16 per cent of the world's population. If children are the bedrock of any society, then it is critical that we equip them with information and provide them with digital skills as the world goes digital.

As an organisation concerned with creating sustainable wealth, and achieving Social Development Goals, the digital literacy of children and young adults is a significant concern for us, and so we have, over the years, put measures in place to achieve this.

One of our major programs is the Basic Digital Education Initiative, a learning program that aims to provide beneficiaries with primary computer science education. The project focuses on investing in quality education for children in underserved communities.

The BDEI curriculum cuts across several areas introducing learners to necessary computing skills like productivity and workplace tools, the internet and the world wide web, cybersecurity, primary programming languages, and digital networking.

This program aims to train 5,000 teachers to become expert trainers by 2030, 500,000 secondary school students to be digital literates by 2030, and 500 children aged 8-18 to become digital literates by 2023.

According to data released by the World Bank, digital literacy in contemporary societies is paramount for both adults and children. In a world where half of the population is online, including 70 percent of 15 to 24-year-olds, it becomes of essence that citizens have the capabilities to make the most of digital opportunities and the internet.

This is even more important for children since they tend to spend more time online than adults, and therefore they are more exposed to both the benefits and the risks of being connected.

As the second half of the world comes online and the internet penetrates new areas, first-time users need digital literacy. Further, investing in children's digital literacy means building more responsible, employable, and tolerant future citizens.

Statistics like these are what motivates us to do more. We partnered with Prunedge, our technology partners, and TourNet Africa to organise an outdoor Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics learning program for this year's Children's Day.

An outdoor STEM learning program was designed as an intervention to inspire young people to explore the increasing career options in tech through well-design visits and trips to tech institutions in Nigeria.

We took these students on tour around our Tech4Dev's Lagos office and prunedge while impacting them with valuable information and experience to help them transition into a thriving career in tech. We also presented them with the opportunity to ask questions about digital literacy and opportunities in STEM.

We believe that this experience will play a significant role in their career choices and equip them to make informed decisions in the nearest future. We are very excited about how much impact we could make this year's Children's Day, and we look forward to making even more impact.