The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has sought to bridge the gap in the manpower needs of the territory especially in the area of ICT skills.
To this end, it has created the enabling avenue for youths of the territory by organizing series of ICT empowerment progammes.
One of such is the Youth Mobile.
YouthMobile project is a programme initiated by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in collaboration
with the FCT Administration (FCTA) for youths within the territory and facilitated by McAnderson Institute of Technology (MIT)
Under this project, youths of the FCT have been exposed to Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills to enable them to develop applications, mobile businesses, hardware, software, among other skills.
The first phase of the programme started in June 2017 with the training of 418 youths from Bwari and Abuja Municipal Area Councils,
who graduated in March 2018, while the second phase was for youths from Abaji, Kwali, Gwagwalada and Kuje area councils.
This year, the second phase of the project had over 600 youths as beneficiaries
What they said
Beneficiaries commended the commitment of stakeholders involved in empowering youths with technological skills for self reliance.
The beneficiaries said the stakeholders’ commitment had impacted their lives and the knolwledge they required had made them economically reliant.
Mr Lukman Mahmud, a beneficiary of the project, said that the skill he acquired enabled him to develop an application called — `’Expectant Mother” which could enable pregnant women to seek help in time of distress.
“One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN is good health and after my sister’s discomforting experience during
pregnancy, I came up with the app.
“The app will help to educate expecting mothers, fathers and the public on the week by week progress of the unborn child, nutrition, diet of the mother and even recommend obstetricians for the expecting mother to consult for more enquiries.
“The app will go a long way to reducing infant mortality and maternal death nationally which can reach the global space.”
Another beneficiary, Emmanuel Shedrach, said that the stakeholders’ efforts depicted their interest to developing human capacity and build the nation for growth.
According to Shedrach, the scenarios that emanate in different parts of the country during the country’s recent general elections
enabled him to build an app called — “Mobile Electronic Voting” which can help to solve some of the issues that arise in the elections.
Abdullah Suleiman, a visually impaired beneficiary, said that the programme educated him and he built “Voiced Examination Platform”.
Suleiman said that persons living with disabilities were under-represented and there was the need to reduce their challenges, especially for the blind
during academic activities.
He added that “this app comes with an impressive text-to-speech feature that reads out the questions and options to the students.”
Mr Akindayo Akindolani, the Managing Consultant of MIT, said “technology is not the end but a justifiable viable means to the end.”
Akindolani added that the YouthMobile project was initiated as a platform for underprivileged and underserved young people to have access to technology skills and deploying same to serve as catalyst to solving local problems.
Over 1,000 youths benefitted from the programme and more than 600 graduated on Monday in Abuja.