Commissioner Makes Case for ICT in Education

The Lagos State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Olufemi Odubiyi, has stressed the need for the federal and state governments to strengthen their investment in ICT education to stem the loss of foreign exchange in the country.

Odubiyi, who made this known in Lagos at the official opening of Digital Banana Limited, the parent body of Career Insight, said the more investment the country has in ICT education, especially in training talents to handle software development, the less the country will spend its foreign exchange to buy those softwares that can be developed locally.

“We need to start looking inwards and the first step towards that is supporting investors or entrepreneurs like Digital Banana to invest in internal capacity development in the state.

“Our youths are full of talents. They are very creative and innovative. Being creative, innovative and thinking outside the box without having the right skill set that can help them actualise their innovative tendency can sometimes be a waste,” he said.

The commissioner said the state government is ready to partner organisations like this to promote youth entrepreneurship.

In his remarks, the CEO, Digital Bananas Technologies, Keji Giwa, said Career Insights has moved from a training company to activate a platform that is allowing Nigerian youths to collaborate learn, develop themselves, get practical work experience; build amazing opportunities in relation to business and to also change their careers.

Giwa said within the next three years, the company hopes to deepen its operation to provide practical work experience for people interested in becoming digital project managers and giving experience within the digital space; it also provide digital solutions to companies that need digital solutions.

“In the next three years, we want to put ourselves in a position where we can account for at least close to two to three per cent of the digital space market and Nigeria young population to build their digital skills and add value to the Nigerian economy.”

This he said would strengthen the production of work-ready talents for not only local companies but talents that can compete globally.