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FG explores apps market to address unemployment

By on May 7, 2014

The growing applications market has spurred the Federal Government to explore the industry to address the high rate of unemployment in the country.

The government gave the indication at the inauguration of the Enterprise Platform for Entrepreneurship in the ICT Sector by the SURE – P Technical Vocational Education and Training in Abuja.

The global mobile apps market is estimated to hit $25bn in 2015.

The market is a special segment of the software industry, which includes Internet applications that are designed to run on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Apart from mobile apps, other applications can run on other modern ICT devices including laptop and desktop computers.

According to the plan unfolded by the Federal Government in Abuja, the Federal Government has already selected 2,000 youths that will serve as pioneers in the project that is expected to turn the participants into entrepreneurs with a multiplier effect that can shrink the unemployment market.

A collaboration involving the SURE-P Programme, the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and Galaxy Backbone Limited, the training in enterprise solutions being facilitated by Galaxy Backbone Limited will last for a period of six months.

At the inauguration of the programme, the Convener of the SURE – P Technical Vocational Education and Training and former President of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Peter Esele, said each of the 2,000 participants would receive a laptop and N20,000 stipend a month for the duration of the training period.

He described the largesse from the Federal Government as part of the benefits of the January 2012demonstration embarked upon by the organised labour and civil society groups to protest the increment in the pump prices of petroleum products by the Federal Government.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Galaxy Backbone Limited, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, expressed the commitment of his company, as the ICT service provider of the Federal Government, to the success of the Enterprise Platform for Entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.

He said the inauguration heralded a new dawn in the country’s collective desire to harness the ICT as a tool of empowerment for youths to bring about the much needed development of the nation.

Ilukwe said, “The Enterprise Platform for Entrepreneurship in the ICT sector is not about providing Internet access to ministries, departments and agencies; rather, it represents a significant milestone towards setting up an enterprise platform which will be used to train Nigerian youths to acquire specific IT-related skills, which will enable them to start their own businesses at the end of the programme.

“I recommend this model of government to government partnership to other arms of the public sector as a veritable means of realising the objectives of the Transformation Agenda of the current administration.”

The acquisition of Rangespan, a London-based ICT start-up, by Google last week illustrates the burgeoning world of apps and ICT enterprises.

Founded by former employees of Amazon, Rangespan has helped clients to predict which products will be among customers using data sciences. Rangespan is the third UK-based start-up that Google has acquired this year.

 

 

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