Ekeh, Zinox Boss Calls for Action Plan on Youth Empowerment

Mr. Leo-Stan Ekeh, chairman, Zinox Group, has called for an action plan on ICT youth empowerment and knowledge economy for Imo State to stem youth unemployment.

Speaking at the just concluded Imo Youth Summit, Ekeh, said that the global recession of 2008/2009 revealed that youth unemployment was a major threat to economic growth and political stability.

He mentioned the Arab Spring as one uprising that proved that the unemployed youth of the world had become too restive.

At the national level reference was made to the instability in the oil producing Niger Delta, the religious riots of the North, the high crime rate and kidnapping in the South East.

 Ekeh said that the greatest problem facing leaders today all over the world was how to find gainful employment for the teeming population of unemployed youth.

The Zinox chairman, who has won many accolades for spearheading IT revolution in Nigeria, argued that Imo State should put in place a plan designed to build a generation of young Imo citizens empowered with ICTs to actively participate in the Information Society and consistently contribute to the development of the State.

The plan would aim at exploiting the potential of ICT, and to find effective and innovative ways to put this potential at the service of Imo Youths.

He recommended a number of activities that would achieve the set objectives – officially establish Imo Youths ICT4D Network and align it to other youth networks in the country and continent;  establish youth training and information centers and support existing training centers for youth e-skill development; design and setup ICT Youth incubation centers in at least 10 LGA’s of the State;  establish youth incubation funds for the 10 centers and providing opportunity for youth in research and development; establishment of ICT Centers that guarantee a multi-media exposure , preferably in Igbo – digital centers, community radio, cinema houses, and information centers.

Lamenting the disconnect between today’s education and the real needs of the society and industry, Ekeh, honored by President Obasanjo as an Icon of Hope for the youths, called for the mainstreaming of ICTs in the education sector and reforming of the education system to produce job creators and not job seekers.

He advised the promotion of ICTs for both formal and informal education. He stressed the need to raise special strategies to address the issue of school dropouts and target those youth with ICT equipment ownership and skills acquisition. 

Ekeh laid emphasis on the need to build youth capacities, especially in entrepreneurship by giving incentives to youth to create small-scale enterprises: tax exemption, special ICT investment funds, micro-credit, subsidies, tax reduction on equipment and free software.

 He said that a good plan should aim at opening up parks and malls to ICT youth activities, i.e. converting Heroes Square and all facilities like it to special ICT parks for youths.

He said that every graduate of Imo State origin from a University, Polytechnic or College of Education should own a subsidized laptop.

Finally, he recommended that within the next two years Imo State should set up a Ministry of Communications and Information Technology saddled with the responsibility of articulating policies and strategies that would use ICT to drive development and create hope for the youth.