Sustaining Project "Code Lagos"

The Lagos State government has announced an ambitious project that will make it the host of the next technological frontier. The project is tagged "Code Lagos" and it aims to train one million residents of Lagos State how to code, (programming), by 2019.

The man saddled with the responsibility of making this happen is Obafela Bank-Olemoh, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Education. I recently had a discussion with him on the merits if the "Code Lagos" project and how the government intends to sustain it.

On why the establishment of the "Code Lagos" project, Obafela stressed that Lagos State believes that technology will play a key part in the future of the State to prosper. It is, therefore, critical, he said, to start preparing Lagosians for that future. The is because technology has made the world a smaller place and Lagosians have to be up to date with technology to be able to compete favourably in the global economy, he opined.

The "Code Lagos" project, according to Obafela, is one which intends to teach one million Lagosians how to code for the next three years, free of charge.

He stated that the model is both private and public sector driven, (PPP), with the aim of combining the strength of both to solve a problem that ultimately help the private to grow. He maintained that Lagos State is the 5th largest growing economy in Africa and the plan is to grow the Lagos State economy to become the 3rd largest growing economy in Africa. For that to happen, technology must play a key role, he concluded.

To achieve this, he explained that coding centres are being taken to both private and public schools in Lagos where kids will be taught how to code from primary 4 class all the way to SS 3 class.

With the large number of people intended to be taught, which is put at about one million, the question if how the project will be funded cropped up. Obafela stated that with the population of Lagos State put at around 23 million and the daily influx of people into the State and for any meaningful change to happen, government must do that kind of numbers to make an impact.

He stated that the Lagos State has funds set aside for the project and this will not be a problem. Old Students Associations of schools are also encouraged to set up coding centres in their various schools and partner with the government to run them.

One aspect that could also be a challenge for such a project is the selection of those to participate in it. Obafela stated that there are two selection processes involved here. First is the selection of the facilitators, which is very critical.

Master trainers, he said, are being trained so they could in turn , train the next 1,000 facilitators. For those who want to be facilitators, they need to visit codelagos.org and fill the forms after which they will be screened and the best will be selected.

He stated that 100 Master facilitators have been trained so far and in the next few weeks, the next set of 1,000 facilitators will be selected for training.

For the selection if students, Obafela stated that this will depend on the size if each coding centre. The minimum the government is looking at, he said, are centres that can train a minimum of 100 students a week. He maintained that you do not necessarily have to be a STEM student as the project is open to any student that has interest in it. He said that what the Lagos State government is trying to do with the "Code Lagos" project is to democratize education and give everyone a chance to succeed.

Obafela also spoke in the "Educate Lagos" project and how it intends to use it to improve education in Lagos State.

Asked if the "Code Lagos" project will be sustainable in the long run, Obafela, said he is confident that it will be sustainable because the government means business which is obvious from the way it has been carrying out the act of governance in the past two years of the current administration coming on board. Everything the government is doing , he concluded, sustainability is being built into it.

CFA is the Founder, www.CFAtech.ng & Co-producer/Presenter,Tech Trends on Channels Television