A non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Leo Stan Ekeh Foundation, has launched its “Imo Wealth Project”, an initiative aimed at creating 10,000 jobs in Imo State.
The programme was launched yesterday in Owerri, the state capital by the foundation’s chairman and group managing director of Zinox Technologies Limited, Leo Stan Ekeh.
While inaugurating the programme, Ekeh, a businessman, pledged his commitment to youth empowerment through job creation.
He said the programme was the pilot phase of an expanded initiative to be carried out in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.
According to him, a minimum of 200 beneficiaries, each month, would be trained in various entrepreneurial skills for a period of three months and empowered with necessary start-up equipment to ensure their self-reliance.
“This is a century in which the children of the poor can have all the privileges they couldn’t have before now, thanks to information technology and programmes such as this.
“We have opened a portal for registration of interested persons and globally renowned information technology companies such Microsoft and Meta (Facebook), among others, will certify the participating graduates who complete the programme,” he said.
He thanked the Imo State University, the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Imo State University of Agriculture and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri for partnering with the Foundation to train qualified Imo graduates.
He added that the foundation had commenced equipping the institutions with best in-class digital tools, starting with the Imo State University and planned to do same in one state from each geo-political zone of the country.
