Encomium
Governor, Edo State, Godwin Obaseki has stated that the Edo state government process now runs through a digital platform. He made this statement at the closing ceremony of the MTN Foundation ICT and Business Skills training held virtually on Thursday, October 12, 2023.
“The world has gone digital and it’s important we embrace technology to the fullest. For us in Edo, our entire government process now runs digitally. We recognise that as a government we must go in that direction and we also know that businesses that rely on us must also go in that direction, therefore, it’s important that we support the entrepreneurship instinct in many of you. What we have done in Edo state by moving to a digital platform, is to create opportunities in over 50 ministries, departments and agencies for you to interact digitally and come up with support and solutions for citizens. The skills you have learnt over the past four weeks are applicable and I beg your support to continue to invest and improve on those skills,” he stated.
The MTN Foundation ICT and Business Skills Training is a youth development and empowerment initiative designed to equip young Nigerian entrepreneurs between 18 and 35 years with digital skills relevant to growing their businesses. This year, the Foundation trained 3000 young entrepreneurs in Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Kebbi, Niger, and Yobe state, in partnership with Meta and Microsoft.
Also speaking at the ceremony, the Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya, highlighted that the core reason for launching the initiative was to equip Nigerian youths with digital skills in an evolving world. “We recognised that the world of work and life generally was evolving and we felt that – being blessed with a youthful and energetic population – we could help the youths harness these competencies and channel the energy into better development for themselves and their communities at large. It was important to upskill people with digital skills, and we have done this for about five years since 2018. For us it’s beyond talking about the impact, the joy is about seeing that we are making things better. The ICT and Business Skill training has also become a platform for collaboration. Without our ecosystem partners, we can’t be here talking about the number of people that have been impacted,” she stated.
Through the ICT and Business Skills training, MTN Foundation has trained young entrepreneurs in over 15 Nigerian states. The Foundation has partnered with several organisations like Oracle, KPMG, IBM, Digital Bridge Institute, CISCO, Google, Meta, and Microsoft to implement the training and also provided equipment loan grants to over 400 top participants to support their businesses.
