To equip young people with in-demand computer skills, the Federal Government of Nigeria has teamed with Cavista Technology, a software development company.
The Executive Director of Cavista Tech, Bamidele Odufuye recently hosted a 48-hour hackathon at the Afe Babalola Auditorium, University of Lagos, UNILAG as part of the partnership.
Over 150 students from UNILAG, Lagos State University, LASU, and Yaba College of Technology, YABATECH, participated in the event, which aimed to find talents, develop them, and give these young people global opportunities.
The students pitched ideas that use artificial intelligence, or AI, to advance the health sector.
Ayodele Olawande, the minister of state for youth development, spoke at the event and stressed the importance of computer skills in the modern workforce.
“A youth in Nigeria should have at least two skills; this is a course we are rigorously pushing,” he said.
Olawande urged the students to take the hackathon seriously, as it allows them to develop innovative solutions.
“If you try as much as possible to make use of this hackathon, you can change your community and environment,” he added.
According to Odufuye, the competition’s objectives were to assess the student’s knowledge and abilities and teach them how to approach problems from the perspective of a global market so they would be better equipped to create solutions that would work in the actual world.
“We have decided to focus on health and also leverage on how AI can help in accelerating the health sector. This is because the sector is lagging.”
“We are confident that emerging students here, not just from these events, going forward, we’ll keep supporting them with opportunities. Again, our company has invested millions of dollars in growing talents in Nigeria,” Odufuye explained.
We earlier reported that Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, expressed interest in a win-win partnership between Mastercard and the state government in the areas of technology, digitalization, and innovation.