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| Chika Nnadazie, Adebola Williams, Isakan Okusami, Ugochukwu Nwosu |
The event was a social, intellectual and youth
oriented stimulating one on Friday, November 15, 2013, when Microsoft unveiled
Aiki Nigeria, an online employability programme.
The cocktail event held at The Civic
Center, Victoria Island, Lagos was hosted by On-Air Personality Toke Makinwa
and comedian Owen Gee.
Speaking to the press, one of the Executive
Directors of Red Media Africa, Mr. Adebola Williams said that ‘Aiki’ in Hausa
Language means ‘work’ and added that the Future Project Africa for the past
five years has focused on human capital for the future generation, organising
trainings under Future Enterprise Support Scheme where they do different training
in general business, writing, teaching and so on. The Future Project, according
to him, is in partnership with Microsoft for Aiki.
Williams also explains what Aiki does: “It
aims to help Nigerians, through their portal to know how they can get jobs, start
their businesses and prepare their curriculum vita, among others.
“Our core mission is to help Nigerians;
especially the youth discover themselves to become entrepreneurs and employers
of labour. On your Nokia phone, you can be able to access your browser and get
information from Aiki.com.ng.
“Through our project, we have been
organising workshops and training young people but we are taking that to a
bigger platform where at least 100,000 Nigerians can have access to such
development per day. In a nutshell, Aiki is a platform to guide young people
either in business or to empower them to excel in their jobs. The training will
ordinarily cost thousands of naira but they can get it at a subsidised amount
from Aiki, which is part of the social responsibility of the Future Awards
Africa, ” he said.
Asked why they focus their training a lot
in Lagos, he explains “Our national enterprise training, which is one day training,
takes place in Abuja, Benin, Enugu and so on. We have covered 26 states in
Nigeria for that one-off training, but with Aiki Nigeria, young people can access
it anywhere in the country which is why Microsoft came out to partner with the
Future Project because it is accessible,” Williams said.
He advised young Nigerians to use the
platform to turn their dreams into wealth.
While corroborating with Mr. Williams’
speech, Director - Youth Enablement 4Afrika Initiatives at Microsoft Mr.
Patrick Onwumere, added that Aiki ultimately provides information people need
to solve their business or job challenges. ”We believe that in order to
actually engage our future leaders, we need to create jobs for our young people.
This portal is an ecosystem of bringing the youth together. Our goal is to
create at least 200,000 jobs in the next three years through this portal.”
Furthermore, he said that Microsoft has
over 10,000 portals across continents. “We are happy to partner with The Future
Project Africa to create Aiki Nigeria. It must not be information technology
jobs but jobs across all sectors of the economy.”
Aiki launch had in attendance the Chief
Executive Officer of JK Pharmaceuticals, Jimi
Agbaje, Microsoft’s director for developer platforms, Sub Saharan Africa, Dele Akinsade, Musician; Timi Dakolo, Saxophonist; Mike Aremu, Actress Ufuoma Mcdermott, Fashion Designer Mai Atafo, Kimberly Ryan’s General Manager Isoken Okusami, Advocate Kathleen Ndongmo
and Microsoft Sr. Partner Sales Executive Lolita Aguele, among others.
Agbaje, Microsoft’s director for developer platforms, Sub Saharan Africa, Dele Akinsade, Musician; Timi Dakolo, Saxophonist; Mike Aremu, Actress Ufuoma Mcdermott, Fashion Designer Mai Atafo, Kimberly Ryan’s General Manager Isoken Okusami, Advocate Kathleen Ndongmo
and Microsoft Sr. Partner Sales Executive Lolita Aguele, among others.
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