Institute Trains 15 NGOs On Technology Entrepreneurship

The Oluaka Institute of Technology, Owerri, in Imo State has begun training of 15 Non Governmental Organisations, NGOs on technology entrepreneurship for leadership enhancement.

Oluaka is accredited by the National Board for Technical Education in Nigeria.

Director of the institute, Mrs Josephine Chukwuma said this at a one-day pre-commencement workshop for the training organised by the institute in Owerri, on Friday.

Mrs Chukwuma said that the technology entrepreneurship and leadership project was aimed at empowering young persons in the South-East with entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for the job market.

She said that the training would involve two weeks residential and three weeks non-residential boot camping during which beneficiaries would be taught relevant digital skills including web designing and pitching among others.

This, she said, would help drive innovation, facilitate knowledge transfer and provide more opportunities for skills development in the region.

She thanked the institute’s funding partner, Mr Innocent Chukwuma Empowerment Foundation, ICCEF for logistics support to help execute the project.

“Technology entrepreneurship development has been hampered by challenges such as limited access to education, cultural biases such as gender and age discrimination as well as inadequate infrastructure and lack of funding and mentoring opportunities.

“But we’re giving a free training as part of our commitment to technology entrepreneurship leadership enhancement in the South-East.

“There will be two cohorts of 25 participants each , drawn from the 15 participating NGOs, and we are grateful to our funding partner, the Innocent Chukwuemeka Chukwuma Empowerment Foundation (ICCEF),  for its support which has ensured the success of this programme,” she said.

One of the resource persons, Mr Uche Aniche, said that the training would provide beneficiaries with solutions to the challenges associated with development in the South-East region.

Aniche, who is the Convener, #startupsouth, a technology entrepreneurship initiative, stated that youth engagement in entrepreneurship would, among other things, create jobs, promote economic growth and contribute to poverty reduction in the region.

The participating NGOs were drawn from the five states of the South-East namely Imo, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and Anambra states.

NAN/Confidence Okwuchi