By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Benue State government has gone into partnership with the Japanese government to develop its youths ICT skills and the digital economy of the state.

The Program Team Lead of Benue Tech Skills, Jeff Udende who made this known when graduates of the Benue Tech Skills Programme made their pitch to the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, JICA, in Makurdi said the partnership which was an initiative of Governor Hyacinth Alia would help create jobs for the youths of the state.

He emphasised that it would also help develop the digital and technology ecosystem of Benue and rake in revenue for the state.

Udende said: “This is an initiative of the Benue State Governor when the state government trained 10,000 youths in ICT. There were two phases, some were trained for direct jobs and others to be employers of labour.

“Today they came together on different technical skills. And the benefit of the partnership with JICA is that they will help build these startup from the scratch, everything that concern building the final startup to be selected for the demo day will come from JICA.

“That is from registration of their company, building of their applications to the best level and looking for funding for them to grow will be powered by JICA. During the demo day, they will be showcasing what they have built so far and the winner will be fully supported and funded to become a tech company.

“And the benefit to the government is that these companies will bring in revenue to Benue and create jobs. Most of them are doing local content and it is solving problems already. This is a fulfillment of the promise of the Governor to create jobs in the digital economy and to showcase what Benue can do in this sector.”

The JICA  Expert on Startup Ecosystem, covering Nigeria and Africa, Nao Fuwa who expressed satisfaction and delight with the presentation of the participants said Benue was blessed with youths with innovative ideas and critical minds.

Fuwa said “people think that Lagos and Abuja are centres of innovation, but I think Benue can be an innovation hub in this areas. And we are committed to supporting their startups for the future. We will also get them technical and other supports to ensure they excel.”

The Lead Consultant of the Benue Open Innovation Program, Samson Igoche who stated that the programme was a partnership between the Benue State Government and JICA to support graduates of the Benue Tech Skills Programme to create and develop business ideas emphasising that in the course of the programme, selected participants would get into an incubation for three weeks after which there would be a demo day.

He said “from that demo day they would be getting support, accesss to funding, investment network and alot of other support that is necessary for them to get their businesses to the next level. It is important to state that this programme does not guarantee any support funding directly from JICA but the participants would be getting access to a number of JICA’s programmes as a result of participating in this programme.”

The Director of ICT in the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, Mr. Ephraim Bula who commended JICA for the partnership to develop the skills of the youths and the economy of the state assured that the Governor Alia-led administration is determined to develop the digital economy of the state and have Benue youths as major players in the sector.

One of the participants, Kendrah Azenda, who worked on developing an App on child care management, thanked the Benue State government and JICA for availing her the opportunity to showcase her skills.

At the end of the pitch which had several groups in attendance, seven were picked to proceed to the incubation period ahead of the demo day that would attract top Benue government functionaries and JICA officials.