US based Information Technology Training Institute, New Horizons Nigeria, has announced a six year old Nigerian student, Master Damilare King-David Akano, as ‘Africa Youngest Microsoft Specialist’ at the just concluded Certiport International Certification examination.
Akano topped in a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2016 examinations with a score of 871 out of 1000 points followed by Master Toluwalese Ayoola Kwaku, a 10 – year old boy, who scored 825 while Master Kolawole Praise Akano, an eight year old, scored 800 points. The trio are students of Scholar Crest International, Omole, Lagos.
They alongside 200 other students participated in a month long summer camp tagged Nextgen IT Experts, organised by New Horizons Computer Learning Systems Ltd and were trained in various ICT courses which were not limited to Microsoft, Multimedia, Robotics Engineering, Drone Technology, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Coding, among others.
With this performance, Damilare, currently in primary one, has been adjudged youngest in Africa to achieve the professional height in 2019, as well as one of the youngest in the world to achieve the feat.
Speaking, Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of New Horizons, Mr. Tim Akano, stated that the emergence of six year old as the youngest ‘Microsoft Certified Office Specialist,’ further testified to the tradition of excellence which the company was known for both in Nigeria and globally.
He added that in the last 14 years, the company had strived to solve one of the major problems confronting corporate Nigeria which is shortage of ICT professionals.
“Before we came to Nigeria in 2005, one of the biggest challenges facing banks and corporate Nigeria was the shortage of competent and qualified ICT personnel to manage ICT infrastructure of organisations.
“Back then, the mobility of ICT staff was very disruptive. In one year, ICT professional would change job twice which caused a lot of disruption in the operations of organisations. But all these are a thing of the past now.
“Over 75 per cent of those who work in ICT departments of corporate Nigeria today passed through New Horizons trainings either in our partnering universities or in one of our training centres across Nigeria. We are happy to have solved one problem for Nigeria,” he said.
