By Fatima Muktar
Special Correspondent, Lagos
Up to one million Lagos residents, regardless of where they come from, are to be trained in computer programming by the government, which is firing on all cylinders to empower men and women with job creating skills.
The bottom line is for trainees to improve themselves financially and in turn help boost the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR).
CodeLagos, as the new scheme is called, complements the N25 billion Employment Trust Fund (ETF)Alausa has already put on the table to better the lot of some of the20 million residents in the country’s most diverse and most populous state.
Lagos, Nigeria’s richest state by IGR, made N23 billion monthly internally in the Babatunde Fashola years but the new helmsman, Akinwunmi Ambode, has sinceraised it to N25 billion and seeks to pivot to N50 million monthlyin 2018.
The Centre of Excellence aspires to become Africa’s technological hub, and to achieve that, Ambode’s Education Adviser, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said the state would train one million residents on computer programming, also called coding.
“People run to India for technology, it’s because they did a programme like this. Now if people want to set up an IT company they go to India, because they have this process.
“So we are trying to do the same in Lagos such that if anyone wants to set up an IT company they will come to Lagos,” Bank-Olemoh enthused.
CodeLagos will be officially launched later this month to equip 100 Master Trainers with knowledge and skills to teach afterschool coding classes.
ARM is setting up 15 centres for the training.
Other partner companies include PricewaterhouseCoopers, SystemSpecs, Etisalat, Oando Foundation, and Oracle Academy.