Governor Chukwuma Soludo, once again, demonstrated great commitment to realize the “everything technology, technology everywhere” vision of his government with the strategic meeting he had with the United States Consul General to Nigeria, Williams Stevens and leaders of selected U.S high-tech companies in Nigeria such as Amazon, Meta, Google, HP, IBM, Dell, Tek Experts, SLB, amongst others at the Consulate in Lagos.
Leading a high-powered delegation that was comprised of the Commissioner for Industry, Mr Christian Udechukwu, his special adviser on Innovation and Business Incubation, Ms Chinwe Okoli, and the Managing Director of Anambra state ICT agency, Mr Chukwuemeka Agbata, Governor Soludo took that significant step that will foster high-tech transformation and innovation in the state. This partnership holds immense potential for Anambra, offering a multitude of benefits that span economic, e-governance, educational, and infrastructural domains.
With this step, the Anambra state government inches closer to its vision of making the state the Silicon Valley of Africa – the digital and creative capital of Nigeria through the Solution Innovation District- SID. Already, the Solution Innovation District is championing the efforts to build a community of innovators, inventors, tech experts, technologists, social entrepreneurs, tech companies, angel networks, investors, startups, digital tribes and smart artisans who are solution providers. Within a year of its take-off, it has trained about twenty-five thousand youths from across the state in more than twenty different core digital skills under its LevelUp Anambra and Code Anambra programmes. Some of the skills where the
beneficiaries were trained include cybersecurity, software development, blockchain technology, machine learning, UX/UI, digital marketing, graphic design, robotics, Internet of Things, Artificial intelligence, front-end and backend web development, Cloud computing, Game development, mobile app development, product management, among others. The goal is to train up to one million ndi Anambra by the 2026 on various digital skills to eradicate digital illiteracy in the state.
Beyond these trainings, SID also offers job placement services to the finest talents in Anambra. This placement could be for onsite or remote jobs, locally, nationally or internationally. It also helps incubate startup ideas with the goal of accelerating brilliant startup ideas from Anambra. This also includes incubating and accelerating young SMEs in the state to leverage technology.
Thus, the strategic partnership with the United States will open a new vantage point of opportunities. The United States of America holds a giant seat in the global digital landscape, playing host to most of the major high technology companies and spearheading major innovations in the world. The Silicon Valley, located in California, USA has been described as the epicenter of the global technology industry. It is home to thousands of world class tech companies ranging from startups to global corporations. A partnership with the U.S will grant Anambra State access to some of these tech giants, expertise, and job opportunities. It will also provide an avenue for Anambra to be considered in their expansion plans, making having their presence in the state achievable.
country. The UNDP and the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council have also selected Anambra as one of the priority states for promotion as major destination for global investments because of the economic reforms of the Soludo government.
Indeed, the Solution is here and the future holds great promise.
Written by OLUCHI KALU-EMEKA
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