Akwa Ibom State has made a timely move to improve and prepare its youth for the future by signing an MOU with Hotel Bookings Limited, also known as hotels.ng, on Web Development Training for the youths. The plan which involves training about 150-500 youths, will employ 50 of the trained youths upon completion of the training.
Hotels.ng, the biggest hotel booking site in Nigeria, was founded in 2012 in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, and its Founder and CEO, Mark Essien seems to be giving back to his community by signing this agreement. Mark, who is a Software Developer, had said that the Honourable Commissioner, Ministry of Science and Technology, Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Nse Essien has plans to make Akwa Ibom one of the leading tech locations in Nigeria.
The announcement of the signing was made by the twitter handle of the state’s Ministry of Science and Technology although it had been announced by Mark’s handle a few days before. He has also explained that it is a special edition of the Hotels.ng (HNG) internship.
Opening remarks at forLoopUyo, where the commissioner for Sci. Tech, Akwa Ibom announced a partnership with Hotels.ng on our next internship
— m_e (@markessien) August 5, 2017
@aksgovt and Hotel Booking Limited sign MOU on Web Development Training. 150-500 youths to be trained & 50 employed on completion. pic.twitter.com/mZnWlugwYi
— AKS Science and Tech (@AKSMOST) August 10, 2017
The internship, which is to last for three months will start in two weeks and is open to both residents and indigenes of Akwa Ibom State. Though headquartered in Yaba, Lagos, hotels.ng, through Mark Essien is changing Nigeria with the internships. This will help improve the tech know-how of the interns and will improve their quality of living.
This may seem like a drop in an ocean, but it is definitely worthy of applaud. If this is done in different states by different entrepreneurs, the crime rate is sure to reduce, and the Nigerian youth will become more profitable to the country. The youths will be engaged for three months, and that is time enough for them to start a new journey, maybe a journey into greatness like Godwin Benson.
We must applaud the state for enabling tech initiatives such as the #forloopuyo and the Start Innovation Hub.
National Ministers, Fire Developers Ministry International and the Hon. Commissioner for Science and Tech, Akwa Ibom State. #forloopuyo pic.twitter.com/z8am1by8cR
— Ibibio King (@christianjombo) August 5, 2017
The application for this internship is still open, and the criteria can be found on Mark’s twitter handle.