Emma Okonji
In line with its vision to promote digital economy policy, the Imo State government has introduced a weekly youth digital skills competition to unlock students’ digital literacy and innovation skills in the state.
Imo State prides itself as the first state in Nigeria to align its digital economy policy direction with that of the federal government, and had since then, promoted digital skills development across the state.
The competition tagged: ‘SkillUpImo Challenge’, is a sub-initiative of SkillUp Imo, a broader and premier human capacity development programme launched by the state government in December, 2022. As a propeller and offshoot of the SkillUp Imo Project, the SkillUpImo Challenge will help to fire up digital innovation and ideas among students in the state, as winners will be rewarded with cash prizes weekly, throughout the competition.
The SkillUpImo Challenge is expected to drive the overall objective of the SkillUp Imo Project, focused on empowering citizens of Imo State with cutting-edge digital skills that will keep them relevant in the 21st century; among others.
At the maiden edition of the SkillupImo Challenge held in Owerri earlier in the week, a student of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) Centre, Chucks Official, was adjudged winner in digital skill innovation, in the first week, based on shared experiences, ingenuity and digital innovation exhibited.
While presenting cash prize to the winner, the Hon. Commissioner, Ministry of Digital Economy and E-Government in the state, Dr. Chimezie Amadi, said the Skillup Imo Challenge would accelerate the actualization of broader objectives of the Skillup Imo.
The broader objectives, according to him, are to train 300,000 youths over the next three years, with 100,000 trained each year; connect 60 per cent of the graduating students to high-paying jobs as well as empowering 40 per cent of them to become their own bosses, become tech entrepreneurs and employers of labour.
According to him, as the training of the first batch of 100,000 youths progresses in 2023 under the Skillup Imo Project, the sub-initiative of the SkillUp Imo Challenge has been created to sustain the interest of the youth and boost excitement in the digital skill acquisition programme.
Amadi said through the SKillUpImo Challenge, a student would stand the chance of winning cash or other form of prizes each week for demonstrating great commitment to learning and for putting what has been learnt into practice.
He also stated that the first batch of 5,000 students from the 100,000 that will be trained this year, would graduate by the end of January 2003, to immediately bring onboard the next batch of beneficiaries of the digital skills acquisition programme.
Amadi assured that with the ongoing implementation of the Project, the Senator Hope Uzodinma-led administration would soon realise its vision of making Imo State the Digital Skills Hub of Africa.
