GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has warned Nigerian youths against indulging in cybercrime and other anti-social vices, urging them to engage in positive activities that will enhance their growth in life.
Ugwuanyi who spoke at the official opening of the TechX Innovation Hub in Enugu yesterday stated that the state government would continue to provide an enabling environment for investment and other socio-economic ventures to thrive.
The state governor who was represented by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Enugu State Investment Agency, Chibuzor Okafor, while lauding the founder of the ICT company, Tony Ojobo, for setting up the business in the Coal City, remarked that Enugu remains one of the safest states in the country.
He, therefore, assured Ojobo who is also the President of African ICT Foundation, of partnering with his organization with a view to creating more jobs, consequently reducing unemployment in the state.
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In his speech, the founder of the TechX Hub, Ojobo, noted that Nigeria had recently witnessed dwindling fortunes due to the volatility in the international market, stressing that the ugly development had stalled economic development, thus making it difficult for the government to provide the necessary social safety nets and benefits for the citizens.
Ojobo, an ex-Public Affairs Director of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) stated that the level of unemployment had remained in the double digits for several years, pointing out, “the available job opportunities cannot absorb the teeming number of graduates coming out of the universities, This led to a high level of criminality and other social vices now prevalent in our communities.”
“In realisation of these challenges, our organisation decided to set up an ICT Innovation Hub in Enugu to contribute our quota towards addressing this problem in the Southeast ecosystem. The level of unemployment in this region is frightening and something has to be done urgently to address the trend.”
He recalled that in 2016, in collaboration with the Young Innovators of Nigeria, the Nigerian Communication Commission, sponsored the organization to carry out a study of the ICT ecosystem in the Southeast to determine the level of innovations and ICT penetration in the region, revealing that the report showed that the level of ICT penetration was very low and that something needed to be done to address it.
“At TechX, we shall create a platform for people with ideas to incubate, startups, business developers, coders, programmers and techies to perfect and scale up their innovations through a structured mentoring process, training and knowledge development programmes Our teeming youths can focus their creative energies more positively with a platform such as TechX Innovation Hub to give them a head p-start in life”, he added.
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