Lagos State government has activated a capacity building to train the teeming youths in the State through the Eko Digital Initiative to acquire skills on cyber security, digital marketing, entrepreneurship skills, phyton among other digital enabled skill set.
This according to the State is to empower the in-school students and out of school citizens of the State to be technology savvy, enhance the socio-economic scope and broaden the Nigeria’s ranking on the global cybersecurity index.
Eko Digital Initiative, is a platform with the aim to produce more tech-savvy youths and students in Lagos where over 5,000 youths, especially varsity education seekers across the state, are currently under the second phase of the programme.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Tokunboh Wahab, said that the training was part of the government decision aimed at empowering youths and young students across the state as well as build a system that ensures youths become solution providers for the country.
Wahab mentioned that the State government has fused Education and Technology in order to drive and advance the development of both sectors.
“Eko Digital Initiative is a project we inherited, hitherto called Code Lagos and we have revamped it 100 percent. So, it is not by accident that we have Education and technology as the third pillar of this Government THEMES Agenda, because we believe
Education cum technology is one ecosystem and what we are doing here is to create a nexus between education ecosystem and technology.
“What Mr. Governor has done is to give this opportunity to our citizens so that those that are in-school and those that are out of school.
For the in-school we have done phase one that covered about 720 schools across the state, both private and public.”
The one we are doing now is Hybrid. Hybrid in the sense that those that are out of school waiting for admission, I mean those who just want to have that I.T knowledge, we provide for them a skill set that will make them relevant in the society.” he said
What next
The Governors aide stressed that the next plan of action is to round off the current phase of training and return to in-school again to do the phase 3 of the Eko Digital initiative that will ensure a complete circle for what the State Governor has approved for the year.
He also noted that in the coming year, the State plans to replicate the phases again with the hope that the State targets about a million equipped tech-savvy to be captured at the end of the day.
Engagement
The Special adviser maintained that the State is determined to ensure that different agencies and firms engage anyone certified under the programme in the state.
According to him “We are doing extensive follow up on those that have passed through the scheme and have told the consultants to help engage the best of them. As it stands, some of those that were training the new students have graduated through the scheme. And they are not doing this for free. We are also trying to ensure that some of the ICT companies engage them. We are not only going to give them that knowledge but also ensure that they could be fixed up in their chosen field”.
He added that the government designed the training in compliance with the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy (NCPS) and to also provide human capacity for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) in their anti-graft war.
Dominica Nwabufo
