1000 youths begin micro-work training as DBI establishes centre in Uyo

Akwa Ibom State government holds the second phase of its youth training programme aimed at exposing them to acquire skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as part of an empowerment scheme.

The second phase of the programme, which is on micro-work training, is being conducted in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Already, the training has taken place in 19 states of the federation with the estimation that more than 1000 jobs are available online daily on various platforms with an average income of between $1000 and $4000 monthly, according to industry sources.

Speaking to kick-start the training in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom Statecapital, which took place at the Ibom e-library, Elizabeth Obot said with the training, participants would have a firsthand knowledge on how to access jobs and making the best out of them.

Obot said that participants in the first phase of the training programme, which was on database management conducted by Oracle, had been certified thus qualifying them to move to the next stage of the training, adding that Uyo had been chosen as the centre for international examinations on ICT certification including Microsoft office specialist, CISCO, Oracle certified programmer and others.

She also said that Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) would soon be established in the state to cover the entire South-South zone of the country, noting that Akwa Ibom would soon become an industrial ICT hub of the country.

DBI is a training institute for ICT training and is managed by the Nigerian Communications Commission. The establishment of the institute she said would boost high capacity development in the area of IT.

“It is only through that the state and country can attain sustainable development and realise its full potentials by creating more jobs for our youths. This will eventually lead to poverty alleviation, reduction in youth restiveness and aid in crime control,” she said.

In his remark, Daudu Sampson, programme analyst from the Federal Ministry of Communication and Technology, thanked the state government for bringing the training to the state as part of its commitment to youth empowerment, and expressed the hope that the youths would “get the best out of the training because one this is sure, the new phase of work is moving online.”