General News
Relevant IT Skills Give Dream Jobs-Akano
Tim Akano, chief executive officer of New Horizon Training Institute, has over 17 years of corporate experience in three multinationals Unilever, Dunlop & NBC. He has vast experience in sales, marketing, corporate planning, supply chain management, public relations and general management. Akano has successfully deepened Nigeria’s IT knowledge with New Horizon. He spoke to emeka okafor.
Century Nigeria Project
New Horizons is coming up with a programme called Century Nigeria. The whole concept of it is to ensure that the current 21st century will count for Nigeria. We did our analysis and realized that the only window of opportunity left for Nigeria in the world today is in the area of Information Technology because when we talk in terms of manufacturing for instance, the Japanese have already perfected in that area in terms of automobile and electronics, they have cornered that market. When you talk in terms of aero plane, America has already cornered it, so the only window of opportunity left for any country is in the area of Information Technology and that is why New Horizons is coming up with a programme called Century Nigeria. The programme is to reposition this country to ensure that this century counts for Nigeria and not to make the century pass like other centuries without making Nigeria relevant in the international system. We can only become relevant through the instrumentality of IT. We want to use IT to reposition Nigeria to make it a relevant part of the comity of nations and the programme is in phases. The last IT job fair we did was the first phase of Century Nigeria where we tried to bring all the youths in Nigeria together to actually put on their laps the latest trends in IT and how also they can optimize the opportunities in IT. So that was the first phase of Century Nigeria. The second phase will be launched in a big way from January next year and we are now going to take it out of Lagos to so many state capitals to ensure that not only the youths in the west, but the youths all over Nigeria are empowered, mobilized and energized enough to the level that they will see the opportunities in IT and they will equally optimize these opportunities. Of course in the last one we did, we brought in the president of EC-Council from the United States of America that is part of the Century Nigeria project. We intend to actually bring the best people in IT internationally as of today to ensure that the Nigerian youths see them, touch them and feel them. We let them know that all those things which those IT greats like Bill Gates at age 19 that Nigerian youths can do the same. For us as a company, we know that it becomes easier for the youths when they feel these people, they see them, they hear from them and as well touch these people. Having done that, they now put the message across that for Nigerian youths like the New Horizons slogan would say “Everything is possible”.
IT Job Fair For Youths
Well, the biggest problem facing this country today is that of joblessness. When we did our survey, we realized that that problem is not totally that of unemployment but that of lack of skills to make people to be employable. So the problem with the youths in this country today is not that of unemployment but that of unemployability. The youths are unemployable in the sense that they don’t have the relevant skills that the industry needs today to actually give them jobs. So the purpose of the job fair we are organizing all over the place now is to ensure that we bring the relevant skills to the youths of this country. We let them see where the gaps are and we need to confirm it that all the youths that have the relevant skills have jobs of their dreams within a period of one or two months because all the businesses you see in this country today, there is none of them that will not expand if they get right skill from their staff whereas they can not expand if the people don’t have the right skill. With the right skill companies will expand and the economy will also expand and become more buoyant. So for us as a company, we saw a gap and we are filling that gap to ensure that we situate the problem the way it is – that the problem is not unemployment but unemployability of youths. To solve the problem, we are giving them a training that will make them to be employable and we are not stopping at that, we are also doing it the way it will be affordable for them. Our dream is that before long, all these youths roaming the streets and make you and I insecure will get jobs as a result of training they have undergone. Then, there won’t be any need for you to build a fence before the house. you build a house because the number of people outside the fence are more than the number of people inside the house. In the face of insecurity there is nothing you can do, you have to first protect yourself. The source of this problem is that nobody is interested in how to take the youths off the streets and as a company, we are so much interested to take the youths off the streets and that is what informed all the job seminars and fairs we are doing so that in the next two to three years, we would have become a country that is driven by IT so that this century will count for Nigeria.
Changing Schools Curricular to Embrace Modern IT Methods
Well, without sounding immodest, after three years of operation in Nigeria, we can beat our chest that New Horizons has added value to Nigerian universities in particular and our economy in general. We have added value in the sense that three years ago, there was nothing like ICT certification curricular in the Nigerian universities, it’s the innovation of New Horizons Nigeria. We saw that gap and realized that teaching students the old IT curricular would not take us anywhere. We have done it for certain years and we did not come up with anything. So that was the gap we saw three years ago. We are grateful for the support we got from the NUC president, Professor Okogie and even the former secretary Professor Okebukola. We are thankful for the support we got from them that we can as at today beat our chest and say that all the undergraduates in Nigerian universities where New Horizons has entered into agreement with are all being taught with latest IT curricular. Let me also tell you that these guys are the ones getting the plum jobs as graduates. For instance, there’s a guy from Covenant University as a youth corper, he is earning over N6,000 per month. Even in New Horizons, we have youth corpers that are earning N120,000 per month. So without sounding immodest, I will say again that New Horizons has added value to people’s lives, parents, students, university system and to this economy by that singular decision to introduce the latest IT curricular certification-based courses to the university academic system. The early birds in this programme are universities like Crawford, Covenant, Babcock, Crescent, University of Ibadan and Lagos State University. We are indeed grateful to the leadership of these universities who saw the trend of IT and who saw that what we were proposing was actually the way forward. Most of the graduates of these universities are the most sought after today in the labour market because most companies are looking for people they will employ and they start work immediately instead of having to train them again for up to three years. Academic training is just the background, they need professional training.
New Horizons Activities in Universities
Well, there is this concept in management which is called low hanging fruit. Low hanging fruit means the fruits which you can first harvest without struggling for a pole to harvest them. So to us, the low hanging fruits in this programme are the states in the west but having harvested the low hanging fruits, the next stage is stand up and go for high hanging fruits, the one we are going to use the pole to harvest, and that is the next phase of our programme. Some universities in the north have written to us and we are going to partner with them from 2009 and also some other universities in the east. By December 2009, we will have covered the entire country. In terms of capacity, we have the capacity and don’t forget that what we do now is very simple in the sense that it makes it easier for us to get capacity because we train the students when they were in school, so it is not difficult when they come out with the skill to work for us to employ them. What we are doing is to train people and employ them. In October alone, we employed about twenty people.
Pact with LASU
We are starting with LASU this month. After we signed a memorandum of understanding with LASU sometime ago, we needed to do a lot of awareness because LASU is a state university and that is the first state university we are partnering with, so there was the need for us to do a lot of awareness to the stakeholders including students, parents, parents, teachers of the school. So it took us sometime to actually complete this cycle of awareness but before the end of this month, we are going to start with LASU.
Recent Extension
We are going to be in the east, north and west by next year. The recent expansion was informed by the demand of the market. We have a lot of people who wanted us to be in Festac, so we had to open a centre there. We had the Ibadan expansion in mind as far back as last year but we just implemented it this year. Like we said , we have Century Nigeria project with the goal to make Nigeria relevant in the world. No nation reckons with a consuming nation but only reckons a productive one and how can we be productive without capacity building. It is when we build capacity that we can have people that can produce IT solutions that the rest of the world will want to use. For me as an individual, I want to see Nigeria as a country in the next five years that when an IT decision is to be taken then will look for Nigeria. With the Century Nigeria campaign, we are bringing a number of best people ion the world to come and meet with our youths to transfer that inspiration and anointing that they have to our youths here.
General News
Moniepoint Commences DreamDevs Bootcamp to Transform 20 Top Engineering Talents into Industry-Ready Professionals
Following a call for applications in January 2026 and a rigorous selection process that drew over 9,000 applications from across the country, Moniepoint Inc., Africa’s leading digital financial services provider, has officially commenced the bootcamp for the second cohort of its flagship DreamDevs initiative aimed at bridging the tech talent gap in Africa by equipping recent graduates with industry-ready skills and real-world experience.
The initiative brings together 20 high-potential engineering graduates for an intensive nine-week programme designed to accelerate their development into industry-ready engineers. It will be recalled that candidates, who are recent university graduates from technology, computer science, and engineering fields were invited to showcase their foundational knowledge in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The journey to the final 20 was marked by a multi-stage screening process designed to identify technical aptitude and learning potential. After the initial application review, candidates underwent an online HackerRank technical assessment. From this pool, 50 shortlisted applicants were invited to a physical code challenge, which determined the final participants selected to join the bootcamp.
“At Moniepoint, we believe that Africa’s tech talent can compete on any global stage if given the right environment. DreamDevs is our way of providing that bridge. We’ve seen the success of our first cohort, and this year we’re doubling down to not just to train, but to create a definitive pathway into full-time roles for those ready to engineer financial happiness across the continent.
DreamDevs is about building engineers who can think, solve problems, and contribute meaningfully to systems at scale. This bootcamp is where that journey begins,” said Felix Ike, Co-founder and CTO of Moniepoint Inc.
Delivered in partnership with Semicolon Africa, the bootcamp focuses on strengthening core engineering competencies through structured learning and real-world problem-solving. The curriculum is designed to move participants from foundational principles to production-grade software development, covering Java OOP foundations, data structures and algorithms, Spring Boot API development, and cloud infrastructure.
Participants will gain direct exposure to Moniepoint’s engineering environment, engaging with internal teams to understand how large-scale financial systems are built and maintained. Standout performers at the end of the nine weeks will secure six-month internship placements, with the strongest candidates eligible for full-time employment.
Wisdom Iyamu, one of the selected participants for the DreamDevs bootcamp expressed shock and appreciation.
“I was honestly shocked when I received the acceptance for the first stage. I have many friends who are equally talented and didn’t make it in, so I feel incredibly grateful and excited to be here. I actually applied because a close friend of mine, who is a huge fan of Moniepoint, convinced me to go for it. My expectation for this bootcamp is to learn exactly how to build products that scale. Whether it’s working at Moniepoint or being part of a team building the next billion-dollar idea, I want to be where high-impact engineering happens”, Iyamu noted.
DreamDevs aligns with Moniepoint’s broader vision of using technology to power the dreams of millions and engineer financial happiness across Africa. It complements the company’s existing talent development programs, including HatchDev – a collaboration with NITHub Unilag and the popular Moniepoint Women-in-Tech initiative, now in its sixth year.
The programme also sits in tandem with the federal government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) initiative, for which Moniepoint serves as a key sponsor. By providing a specialised pathway from foundational training to employment, Moniepoint continues to invest in the people who will drive Africa’s digital economy forward while serving as the backbone of Nigeria’s small businesses and enterprises to catalyze economic prosperity.
Federal government has directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to suspend the introduction and rollout of new policies, regulations, or major regulatory changes until full compliance with the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) Framework is achieved.
The directive, issued by Princess Zahrah Mustapha Audu, director general of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), is part of efforts to strengthen regulatory quality, ensure policy coherence, and improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria
According to the statement, the RIA Framework, which was formally implemented in January 2025, requires that all new policies or amendments introduced after the date must undergo review and approval in line with its provisions.
She noted the framework has already been circulated to MDAs by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and is also accessible on the PEBEC website.
MDAs are therefore expected to familiarise themselves with the framework and align their policy development processes accordingly.
Audu emphasised that while the government remains committed to working collaboratively with regulatory institutions, no new reform or policy would be allowed to proceed without being backed by clear and verifiable evidence.
She explained the directive aims to prevent policy shocks that could negatively affect businesses, investors and citizens, eliminate inconsistencies and frequent policy reversals, and institutionalise evidence-based policymaking across government.
The directive also seeks to enhance transparency, improve predictability, and boost stakeholder confidence in public policies, while ensuring adequate engagement to minimise resistance prior to implementation.
Consequently, all MDAs have been instructed to suspend any planned policy rollouts that have not yet been implemented, ensure that new policy proposals are supported by comprehensive RIA and necessary approvals, and integrate the RIA process into their internal policy formulation procedures.
They are also required to undertake structured and inclusive stakeholder engagement as part of policy development to improve acceptance and implementation outcomes.
The PEBEC boss added that MDAs can access the RIA Framework through its website or seek technical support from the council’s secretariat.
She, however, noted that exceptions would only be granted in cases of urgent national interest, subject to appropriate approval.
Audu stressed that cooperation from all MDAs is crucial to building a stable, consistent and business-friendly regulatory environment capable of driving sustainable economic growth and boosting investor confidence.
The Federal Government has unveiled a new digital platform, NITOUREY, aimed at showcasing Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and tourism destinations to global audiences.
The initiative, introduced at a press conference organised by the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority, was described as a public-private partnership designed to project Nigeria’s diverse cultural assets.
Speaking at the event on Tuesday, the Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, said the platform marked another step in repositioning Nigeria as a leading global destination for tourism, culture and creative excellence.
She explained that the digital project would harness the power of the creative economy and technology to amplify Nigeria’s cultural narratives while creating opportunities for young Nigerians, filmmakers, content creators and tourism operators.
Musawa said, “Today marks yet another significant step in our collective journey to reposition Nigeria as a leading global destination for tourism, culture and creative excellence.
“The initiative aligned with the administration’s economic diversification drive, noting that tourism had the potential to contribute significantly to national growth.
“President Bola Tinubu has a vision to use tourism as part of economic diversification and expansion, and NTDA can play a vital role in achieving that goal”.
She emphasised that NITOUREY would not only showcase destinations across the country but also create economic opportunities within the creative industry.
“Through this initiative, we are not only showcasing destinations across Nigeria but also creating opportunities for the creative industries, including filmmakers, content creators, tourism operators and young Nigerians within the creative economy,” she added.
The minister also stressed the importance of collaboration between government agencies, state governments and the private sector, noting that the platform was a PPP initiative designed to unlock the full potential of Nigeria’s tourism and creative sectors.
“This is a commendable PPP initiative that demonstrates the collaboration required to unlock the full potential of Nigeria’s tourism and creative industry,” she said.
She further assured stakeholders that the Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy would continue to support initiatives that enhance Nigeria’s visibility, attract investment and create jobs.
In his remarks, the Director General of NTDA, Ola Awakan, described NITOUREY as a transformative platform that will redefine how Nigeria is presented to the world.
He emphasised that tourism thrives on perception, visibility, and storytelling, noting that the platform will collaborate with key institutions, including the Nigerian Film Corporation, National Film and Video Censors Board, and the National Information Technology Development Agency, to deliver high-quality content.
Awakan added that the initiative is powered by a strong public-private partnership involving TOURCLIQ Creatives Limited and JM MiSA International Limited, underscoring the importance of collaboration in unlocking the full potential of Nigeria’s tourism and creative industries.
He further revealed that NITOUREY will spotlight iconic destinations across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, including Zuma Rock, Yankari Resort and Safari, the Argungu Fishing Festival, Ngwo Pine Forest and Cave, Obudu Mountain Resort, and Olumo Rock, projecting them to a global audience.
The platform is expected to serve as Nigeria’s premier tourism streaming platform, projecting the country’s culture, creativity and destinations to both domestic and international audiences.
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