• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Techhaven equips over 300 Nigerian youths with digital skills

‘Nigeria’s challenges can by fixing gender divide in STEM’

Over 300 Nigerian youths have benefited from the mentorship programme organised by Techhaven – a non-profit Technology Education community – to empower Nigerian youths with digital skills and enable their transition into careers in the technology sector.

Founded in 2017 by Imole Oluyemi, Techhaven through the free annual mentorship programme, empowered Nigerian youths with high in-demand technology skills such as Product Design, web and mobile app development, which enabled them to land roles in top companies in Nigeria and overseas.

The 2022 edition tagged: “Techhaven 3.0 Mentorship Programme” which held recently targeted youths across Nigeria, but unlike in the previous editions, it was 100% virtual and focused on empowering participants to transition into No-code and Low-code roles in Product Design, Product Management and Cybersecurity.

The mentorship programme, which lasted for nine weeks, saw the youths receiving mentorship from top industry professionals including Helen Oluyemi – a cybersecurity professional whose experiences cut across Telecoms, Consulting, and the Financial sector in Nigeria and the United Kingdom; Tomisin Agbaje, one of Nigeria’s most experienced and versatile Product Managers and Ridwan Egbeyemi – a highly experienced Product Designer and entrepreneur with experience spanning several industries.

Read also: Forbes Technology Council announces Fene Osakwe as latest member

Other facilitators included Kehinde Odewole – a Techhaven alumnus and Product Designer with experience spanning Finance and logistics industries in both Nigeria and Germany.

Other facilitators who shared their wealth of knowledge with the students during the programme included Seunla Osinowo – Senior Product Manager at Craneware; Tobi Esho – Product Manager at Topflight Apps, USA; Temi Giwa – Senior Product Manager at Paystack, Nigeria and Hugh Leoidsson – Senior Product Designer at Babylon Health, UK.

Others include Precious Madubuike – Product Designer at Meta (Facebook), UK; Stefanie Fleisch – Director of Design at Forto, Germany; Babatunde Gideon – Cyber Security and Risk Consultant at KPMG, Canada and Chinua Katchy – Information Security Analyst at Templafy, Germany.

Speaking on the programme, the founder, Imole Oluyemi said, “this period presents an opportune time to equip Nigerian youths with the relevant digital skills needed to play an active part in the global digital economy”.

He said the programme would continue to evolve to accommodate more young people in Nigeria willing to transition into careers in technology, adding that the next editions promise to be more inclusive while offering an even richer experience.

Some of the mentees who participated in the programme described it as a life-changing opportunity.

“Being an intermediate Product Designer, I decided to hop on the Techhaven train as soon as I saw it. I was looking forward to adding more knowledge to what I had, as well as becoming part of a versatile community of designers. I was not disappointed in any way,” said Abiodun Omonijo, a beneficiary.

Also commending the initiative, another beneficiary, Aluko Temiloluwa said, “When I joined the boot camp, I realized that what I thought of Product design was not entirely correct. I thought it was only about designing and packaging physical products.