Edo Innovation Hub, MADE partner on hub’s mgt, youth training

In what has been described as a proactive move to ensure sustainability in its operational efficiency, Edo Innovation Hub, a brainchild of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration in Edo State, has entered into a partnership with the Market Development in the Niger Delta (MADE), which covers the hub’s management as well as capacity building for youths in the Niger Delta region.

The partnership will see MADE, a project funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), support the hub with critical expertise required to ensure sustainability and other support structures to boost employability of youths.

Speaking at the signing of the deal on the partnership at the Edo Innovation Hub in Benin City, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor on Skills Development and Job Creation, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, said that the hub has reaped the first fruit of the partnership with the recruitment of the hub manager to manage the affairs of the hub, interface with investors, secure partnership deals, ensure sustained inflow of projects and engage with the state’s budding tech community.

According to her, “We are very happy to have signed this partnership with MADE on the management of the hub. It is the first phase of ensuring a sustainability programme for what we are doing here, as the kinds of programmes and projects that happen at the hub can only find full expression if we get experts to do the job and engage with the tech community in Nigeria and beyond.”

Dare said that the partnership with MADE is one out of many of such deals the hub is willing to enter into, to ensure that operations at the hub is not only seamless, but that those who will be using the hub will have confidence in the system.

Noting that the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration is keen on ensuring that youths find expression in the unfolding digital revolution sweeping through the world, she said, “We are very much in tune with what is happening across the globe, especially with the rise of digital innovation. So we are happy to work with partners such as MADE to bring this opportunities to our people in Nigeria.”

She said the partnership has different components, some of which include support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), capacity building and market development for enterprises in different product value chains.