MTN Nigeria has said it has approved N90 million for 300 youths that emerged successful in its sixth edition of its youth skills development initiative tagged MTN ICT and Business Skills Training.
Through its Foundation, MTN Foundation, the cash will be used to equip the lucky participants to expand their businesses and deepen the digital literacy landscape.
Director, MTN Foundation, Dennis Okoro pledged the commitment of the company to expand the digital horizon in the country by investing in digital skills development among the youths and congratulated the winners and participants.
One of the winners, Mohammed Idriss, co-founder of Wingnet IT and Electronics, fromYobe State, thanked the telecom company for the opportunity provided for him and others in partnership with Meta and Microsoft.
He said: “What I got was beyond what I could describe. I know how difficult it is to train people; the support will enable me to take my training programme to students in SS2 and SS3 in Yobe State to the virtual space. We have partnered with the state government to train youths in ICT.
“We train students and work hard to stimulate their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) so that they could embrace a career in the technology sector.”
According to the telco, MTN ICT and Business Skills Training is a youth development initiative aimed at equipping young entrepreneurs between 18 and 35 years with tech enabled skills to keep their small businesses relevant and competitive.
The training was delivered through a five-week online programme which included Masterclasses from key industry experts.
Participants will be given data for the duration of the programme to support a seamless learning experience. Not only that, the top 300 participants will be supported with an Equipment Grant worth N90,000,000.
“In partnership with some of our ecosystem partners – Oracle, KPMG, IBM, Digital Bridge Institute, CISCO, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, 5 Phases of the ICT and Business Skills Training have been implemented in 16 states since 2018.
They are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Borno, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Oyo and Rivers. So far 4,036 young people have completed this programme.
In the sixth phase, 3000 youths participated in the ICT training that was done in partnership with Microsoft and Meta.
Microsoft trained participants on Entrepreneurship in the Digital Age, ICT for Business Success and their new Generative AI skills while Meta trained participants on Skills to Build Brands and Grow Businesses Online through their Meta Boost for Small Business.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
