Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh on Thursday said the CodeLagos Programme, billed to be launched later this month will train one million Lagosians on computer programming.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh who disclosed this at the commencement of a three-day training session for CodeLagos Master Trainers, said the programme would on the long run, would not only make the State a technology hub, but also give Lagosians the opportunity to become self employed.
“If you look at India, 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 said.
He said the CodeLagos Programme which would be officially launched later this month was in line with the vision of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, to position Lagos as the technology frontier in Africa.
Bank-Olemoh said that the ongoing training of Master Trainers would equip 100 trainees with the knowledge and skills to teach afterschool coding classes for the CodeLagos programme.
He said trainees were selected following a rigorous screening exercise, which commenced in March 2017.
According to him, “these Master trainers will go on to train over 1,000 CodeLagos facilitators who will eventually be deployed to different coding centres across the State. In this way, CodeLagos will create employment and business opportunities for Lagosians in the technology sector.”
Bank-Olemoh highlighted the contribution of the private sector to the CodeLagos project, thanking ARM who have committed to setting up 15 centres.
Other companies that have recently partnered include PricewaterhouseCoopers, SystemSpecs, Etisalat, Oando Foundation and Oracle Academy, to mention a few, who will be setting up clusters of coding centres.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of SystemSpecs Limited, Mr. ‘Deremi Atanda expressed the continued commitment of the organization to support the laudable initiative.
“The greatest asset of a State like Lagos is the growing youth population. The choice to empower them is the wisest decision the State has made, laying a good foundation for the emerging knowledge economy. We are convinced that CodeLagos would do just that”, Atanda said.
On his part, the State’s Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Femi Odubiyi, reiterated the commitment of the State Government to develop a tech-driven economy.
CodeLagos will officially launch this April, with a roll out of coding centers across 350 public and private schools as well as public libraries across the State.