THE Chief Executive Officer, Afriportal Network Limited, Micah Atoma has said that information and communication technology if harnessed by the state government could generate more revenue for the state and reduce youth restiveness.
Addressing newsmen recently at his office, the 29 year old Linux Server Administrator, Programmer and Web Developer, said that another way to actualize Delta beyond oil was for the state government to inculcate the youths of today with a sense of information and communication technology.
According to him “Delta State is an oil producing state, yes, but with the shortfalls in recent years there are other sectors which the state government can harness in order to generate more revenue for smooth running of the affairs of the state.
“I believe that if information and communication technology is entrenched in the minds of the youths now it will reduce unemployment as more youths will be self-employed-bread winners, become better members of society and job providers.
“This will also attract foreign investors and revenue because youths with good information and communication technology knowledge can work as freelancers to foreign companies-that is provide services to people outside the shores of Nigeria, thereby creating more jobs because when you have clients overseas whom you are providing services for it will get to a point whereby you will need more hands to work with you and that is where more job creation comes into play.
“Afriportal Network Limited was established and started operation in 2018 and our core focus is to inculcate the culture of information and communication technology in the minds of the youths in Delta State.
“So far, we have been able to achieve a small feat by training over 100 youths but we believe that there is still a long way to go as we are hoping to train over a thousand in the next five years.
“We intend to create more ICT hubs to train more students while serving as mentors to more youths thereby reducing youth restiveness in the state.
“In order to do that, we need to increase the awareness level of ICT, we are confident that with the right mind set of the youth we will be able to achieve our goal of digitalizing the state and before you know it, Delta State will be one of the most digitalized state in the country.”
