Paradigm Shift In Enugu As Bridge Institute Begins Training of 300 Unemployed Youths On Digital Skills

By Madu Ezenoha

Enugu state is set to witness a digital revolution and harvest of skilled manpower as no less than 300 youths from Awgu/Oji-River/Aninri Federal Constituency of the state recently concluded an orientation, preparatory for three - six months training on digital skills, courtesy of the Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy through the Digital Bridge Institute, Enugu Campus.

The orientation which took place at Oji-River local government area of the state witnessed the enthusiastic participation of shortlisted youths from the three local government areas of Awgu, OJI-River and Aninri. The programme was attracted by Mazi Ezenwa Onyirimba, who happens to be the Director of Youths and Students Affairs at the National Headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking while flagging off the orientation, Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, challenged 300 trainees to take advantage of the opportunity to acquire the life-changing digital skills that will guarantee them automatic employment after the training.

Nnaji, who was represented by the Enugu State Chairman of the APC, Barr Ugochukwu Agballah enjoined the youths to take the training seriously in order to gain the required skills and knowledge that will change their lives for better.

The Minister thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for approving the training and his counterpart in the Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr. Bosun Tijani for putting the Digital Bridge Institute, Enugu Campus into use for the training of youths of South East in digital skills.

Nnaji commended the facilitator of the training and a major APC stakeholder in the state, Mazi Onyirimba, who is also Chairman, South East Youth Stakeholders Forum for attracting the training opportunity.

He expressed happiness that the programme falls in full rhythm with the agenda of the president, noting that President Tinubu believes in tech, which he said forms part of the reasons for Mr. Presidents visit Japan and Brazil with Minister of Innovation Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji and others, to work out partnership, international collaboration that will drive the tech world.

The Minister said, “What we are seeing here today is very good. The facilitator Prince Ezenwa Onyirimba has put our youths in the frontier of the new civilization.

“Like I said, tech is a new civilization, we are on the verge of new civilization, a civilization that can only be likened to the supernatural and it’s a new realm that is opening up. People say that it’s an industrial revolution, but it’s bigger than an industrial revolution.

“There’s no sector that has contributed 10 percent to the world economy but tech is today contributing 29.5 percent and it’s growing at 9.5 percent per annum.

“So it’s important that we key into this new convergence; convergence of robotics, artificial intelligence, cyber security, data analytics. And I believe that the digital field, with what digital agencies do here, will prepare our youths to engage in this new realm.”

The Minister dismissed insinuations that only APC members were benefitting from the programme, insisting that it was non partisan.

“The programme is for the youths of Enugu state, youths of Aninri, Awgu, Oji-River local government areas but it’s powered by APC. Most of the youths who are here are not APC members, they are those interested in tech, but whether they are in opposition, whether they are in APC or PDP, they are part of the country.

“APC is the government ruling the country but it’s ruling everybody, it’s ruling for the benefit of every Nigerian just like whatever we do here is for the benefit of every youth in Enugu state, who they decide to vote for is their own personal choice and as a democrat we cannot abridge that choice.

“We must be democratic in nature. It’s their freedom, their right to belong to any party. But what we have to do is to use the contact we have as a party, a party that is in government at the federal level, to bring this to our people.”

In a remark, the facilitator of the training, Mazi Ezenwa Onyirimba, who also acknowledged the effort of the SSA to the President on Community Engagement, South East, Barr Chioma Nweze in facilitating the training, thanked the Digital Bridge Institute through the Hon Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Tijani, for introducing programmes that will help to train the unemployed youths and also provide job for them.

“What we are doing today is orientation for the selected 300 unemployed graduates from Greater Awgu (Oji-River, Awgu, Aninri LGAs0. So it’s happening here in Oji-River to give them information about the programme. The programme is taking off in the first week of October at the Enugu campus.

“So it’s all about empowerment, it’s all about employment, it’s all about providing for the people of Greater Awgu, it’s all about encouraging the youths, giving them access to sustainable development.”

Ezenwa revealed that during the duration of the training, the participants would receive daily transport and feeding allowances, while at the end of the training the trainees will receive a laptop computer each and will stand a chance of automatic employment in tech companies and federal government agencies and also overseas.

“Our leader the Hon Minister Uche NNaji, during the time we were trying to have Digital Bridge Institute South East to work, he was one of the people that helped to push and ensure that the Minister of Communication and the Digital Institute Abuja, kick off the commencement of the South East.

“And if he didn’t do something like that what we are benefitting today wouldn’t have been possible because now the South East is being captured to be part of what we are having today.

“So we also appreciate him and his leadership and we also say thank him and we thank him, we thank the Hon Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, we also thank the President and CEO Digital Bridge Institute for also listening to the cry of South East and also because of the singular act, we brought this down to the Greater Awgu and also other areas in South East.”

“The aim is to train them in digital skills and also to employ them through the federal government and their foreign partners. So it’s like 80 percent chances of them being employed after the training, it’s a three months to six months programme depending on the package one chooses.”

He explained that the trainees were selected through the media information, through the community leaders, and through the churches. He said that messages were sent to them for them to send to people that are interested in digital skill.

“We are not providing grants to them but we are providing employment, which is most important. So we are providing employment, we are providing a platform for them to excel,” he said.      

Speaking, President of Digital Bridge Institute, Dr. Daser David, who was represented by the Head of the Digital Bridge Institute, Enugu Campus, which is for the South East, Mr. Daniel Chinagozi stated that the Institute as a government institution was partnering with a foreign firm, SBTS of United States, to provide training for young people.

“We are targeting at training and engaging 50,000 youths across Nigeria within the next two years. And our plan is to train them on skills like business process outsourcing skills because these are skills that our partners in the US and other countries have need for.

“We are training them on digital marketing, software development, and cyber security so that they can work in some of our cyber security operation centres across the country.”

He explained that the training in Enugu is not just the 300, stating that they designed their curriculum in such a way that the programme is continuous.

“So we have had the first batch of 100 that just started… We have started recruitment now for the set that will start their classes in October, which is this set. So as that class is starting, another set is getting ready, so every new month a fresh cohort is starting because as they are graduating we are channeling them to jobs.

“We have in-demand jobs waiting for these people to take off, so we don’t have a particular target. We have an advantage in Enugu Campus because Enugu Campus has a bigger space than our Abuja Centre, so we are taking much more people here than we are taking in Abuja.”