3MTT — Nigeria's 3 Million Technical Talent Programme

3MTT (3 Million Technical Talents) is a federal digital-skills programme launched in November 2023 by Nigeria's Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, delivered through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), aiming to train three million Nigerians in software development, data, AI, cybersecurity and design by 2027.

The programme's goal is to position Nigeria as a net exporter of tech talent by building a large, digitally skilled workforce drawn from nearly all of the country's 774 local government areas.

3MTT has drawn more than 1.8 million applications and, by October 2025, had onboarded over 90,000 learners across its first three cohorts, delivered through more than 200 Applied Learning Centres nationwide. Amazon Web Services partners on cloud infrastructure and has modelled an AI-supported learning-assistance approach intended to cut per-learner support costs from roughly $25 to $2.60 a year, aimed at making the eventual 3-million-learner target financially viable.

The programme reports more than 7,500 fellows placed into jobs through employer networks, with female participation at 35% against an internal 40% target. Independent review by TechCabal of the first cohort found that only 6,000 of the 31,270 selected fellows (19%) completed the programme, with an 11.2% job-placement rate, and raised questions about whether a three-month course adequately prepares fellows for employment.

3MTT shows a national government building large-scale digital-skills infrastructure and AI-assisted delivery to reach a very large target population, but independent cohort-level data shows completion and placement rates for the first cohort were modest relative to the programme's ambitions.